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SCP-5304 Unknown ~ medium confidence
SCP-5304
Expected annual
$2.4M
One-time setup
$1.4M
Annual recurring
$2.3M
Personnel
15
Initial (one-time) deployment and program setup are moderate-to-large (primarily R&D lab setup, initial research program, and a containment escalation reserve). Recurring annual costs are driven by staff wages for R&D and OSINT/moderation teams, ongoing monitoring (crawler, proxies, hosting), legal/liaison expenditures, and a standing rapid-response reserve.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $1.4M
Initial Research And Lab Setup $620K
[#4, #17] R&D workstations/GPUs and the initial applied research/suppression program funding (compute, test accounts, program startup).
Containment Escalation Reserve $500K
[#25] Recommended one-time reserve for unpredictable escalation and larger anomalous effects.
Equipment $78K
[#1, #7, #8, #10, #13] One-time hardware and system purchases including initial crawler deployment/config, device farms and burner device purchases, secure communications hardware, initial storage hardware, and sensor/CCTV install.
Outside Counsel Fees $50K
[#5] One-off outside counsel / subpoena / legal fees for complex jurisdictional actions.
Forensic Investigation $50K
[#11] Focused technical tracing and contractor forensic efforts for an investigation.
Bribery Contingency $50K
[#18] Documented contingency for informal/expedited payments (contingent/illegal risks).
Training Playbook Setup $30K
[#19] Creation and initial rollout of SOPs, playbooks, red-team exercises and training materials.
Misinformation One Time $25K
[#21] One-time PR / narrative seeding operations to manage leaks or high-profile mentions.
Private Investigators $20K
[#12] Targeted PI / local surveillance engagements (1–4 week efforts).
Field Assessment Visits $9K
[#13] Field visit(s) to the WV site (team travel, short on-site assessments).
Shell Company Setup $6K
[#20] One-time corporate/shell company formation and related setup to enable cover accounting.
Facilities $6K
[#13, #14] Temporary visitor-mitigation physical items (fencing/signage) and minor site-related physical work.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $2.3M/yr
Staff Wages $1.8M/yr
[#3, #4, #5] Salaries and benefits for OSINT/moderation operators, software engineering & R&D staff (engineers, data scientists, PM), and in-house counsel.
Research And Monitoring $308K/yr
[#1, #2, #9, #10, #17] Ongoing crawler hosting, proxy/IP rotation subscriptions, reputation-management/SEO content production, secure storage retention costs, and recurring research/compute/test-account budgets.
Cover Story And Legal $85K/yr
[#6, #21] Contractual/liaison budgets for expedited cooperation and recurring PR/misinformation / narrative management costs.
Rapid Response Reserve $50K/yr
[#16] Standing contingency / rapid-response fund for short-notice deployments and emergency logistics.
It Maintenance And Insurance $20K/yr
[#22] Routine systems maintenance, security patches and cyber insurance premiums.
Psych Personnel Services $15K/yr
[#24] Personnel vetting, counseling, and ongoing monitoring to mitigate insider risk.
Account Management $15K/yr
[#7] Ongoing burner/verified account maintenance, device profile subscriptions, phone numbers and credential vault services.
Facilities Maintenance $12K/yr
[#13, #14] Ongoing site sensor connectivity, routine site checks and liaison/coordination for visitor mitigation.
Audit And Shell Maintenance $12K/yr
[#20] Accounting, shell maintenance and audit-related cover costs.
Logistics And Transport $10K/yr
[#15] Routine field team travel, vehicle rental, lodging and per diem for investigations.
Energy And Hosting $6K/yr
[#23] Power and marginal hosting/data-center costs for on-prem hardware and servers.
Training Updates $6K/yr
[#19] Recurring training sessions and SOP updates.
Supplies And Consumables $5K/yr
[] Miscellaneous consumables and small recurring supplies (minimal recurring physical consumables).
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $2.3M/yr
84.5% probability / year
Normal operational year with routine monitoring, staff salaries, and scheduled maintenance; no major public incidents.
routine monitoring no large public attention standard legal/liaison activity
🚨 Minor Incident $2.4M/yr
12.0% probability / year +$100K vs baseline
A moderate spike in public attention or a localized online breach requiring extra takedowns, targeted forensics, and limited field work.
viral social post temporary surge in reviews targeted forensic effort
🚨 Major Breach $2.8M/yr
3.0% probability / year +$500K vs baseline
Sustained or high-visibility exposure (e.g. widely viewed video or persistent forum threads) requiring extended legal action, larger PR buys, and elevated field operations.
large viral media coverage coordinated public campaigns extended forensic/subpoena activity
🚨 Catastrophic Breach $4.3M/yr
0.5% probability / year +$2.0M vs baseline
Large-scale Broken Masquerade / mass visitation or public panic requiring MTF-style operations, amnestic administration, multi-day deployments and major legal/containment escalation.
mass gatherings at site BK-Class breach national media exposure
👥 Personnel 15 total
Role Count Notes
Research Scientist / Engineer 5 Engineering staff building detection, automation and suppression tools (part of #4 recurring salaries).
Data Scientist 2 ML and classifier development to reduce exposure windows (mapped to #4).
Product Manager 1 Project/product lead coordinating R&D and ops (#4).
OSINT Analyst / Moderator 4 24/7 moderation and takedown operators handling reviews and manual removals (#3).
In-house Counsel 1 Legal liaison and processing for takedowns and subpoenas (part of #5 recurring).
Security Liaison 1 Coordination with MTF/security and field deployments (support role included in staff wages).
Administrative Staff 1 Administrative and operations coordination (payroll, vendor management).
📋 Confidence Notes
Notes are detailed and provide ranges for most items, enabling a mid-confidence estimate; however many line items are highly variable or contingent (bribery, forensic duration, scale-up) so uncertainty remains around exact budget figures.
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