← SCP Cost Explorer Read on SCP Wiki ↗
SCP-5434 Unknown ~ medium confidence
SCP-5434
Expected annual
$3.8M
One-time setup
$1.5M
Annual recurring
$3.6M
Personnel
13
First-year program costs (including one-time lab and development) are approximately $5.07M with one-time setup ≈ $1.46M and recurring yearly costs ≈ $3.61M. Major cost drivers are recurring personnel (monitoring/takedown/clinical staff), legal/PR/insurance, and platform/carrier coordination/contingency funds.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $1.5M
Mitigation App Development $350K
[#16] One-time R&D to build a benign "shim"/mitigation app (midpoint of $200–500k).
Containment Software Development $225K
[#13] One-time development of filters, signatures, MDM policies and initial coordination integration (dev costs).
Research Pilot Study $187K
[#9] Controlled-subject pilot study (50 subjects) including recruiting, compensation, staffing and overhead (per-study one-time estimate).
Initial Research And Lab Setup $160K
[#4, #15] Mobile forensics / reverse-engineering lab setup ($60–120k) and air-gapped analysis environment & backups ($40–100k); combined estimate midpoint.
Carrier Coordination Initial $125K
[#14] Initial negotiation/technical liaison costs for carriers/ISPs (one-time setup/negotiation).
Equipment $119K
[#1, #6, #10] Automated monitoring infrastructure/classifiers ($75k), hardened containment phones + MDM/Faraday/spares (~$9k), initial secure archive/storage setup (~$35k).
Facilities $100K
[#17] Facility upgrades and physical security hardening (access control, cameras, vetting).
Personnel Vetting One Time $60K
[#20] Initial full vetting for staff (approx. $1–3k/person for ~30 people).
Network Instrumentation $55K
[#5] One-time network monitoring & server-tracing instrumentation (hardware, honeypot devices, segregated analysis network).
Training Setup $55K
[#18] Initial SOP development and training materials / initial training sessions ($30–80k).
Platform Outreach $25K
[#3] Initial outreach and discrete procurement budget (one-time outreach costs).
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $3.6M/yr
Staff Wages $1.2M/yr
[#1, #7, #8, #17] Monitoring/takedown analysts & devs (4 @ $90k = $360k), manager (1 @ $140k = $140k), 24/7 watch rotation (3 @ $90k = $270k), psychologists/clinicians (1 senior + 2 clinicians = $320k), security staffing (~$140k).
Emergency Takedown Reserve $500K/yr
[#19] Reserved annual fund for emergency mass takedowns or simultaneous global appearances (midpoint of $250–750k).
Cover Story And Legal $465K/yr
[#2, #11, #23] Legal retainer and emergency legal hourly ($250k/yr), PR retainer and baseline media monitoring (~$100k/yr), privacy/compliance counsel (~$115k/yr).
Insurance And Liability $300K/yr
[#12] Insurance premiums and liability coverage to handle lawsuits/regulatory fines (midpoint of $100–500k/yr).
Platform Coordination Contingency $300K/yr
[#3] Annual contingency fund for buyouts, expedited takedowns, or discrete payments to platform contacts ($100–500k/yr, midpoint used).
Research And Monitoring $216K/yr
[#5, #10, #9, #8] Network monitoring bandwidth/cloud logs (~$42k/yr), secure archive storage retrieval (~$24k/yr), ongoing small-scale research overhead/staffing (~$150k/yr), plus clinician crisis budget included.
Carrier Isp Maintenance $200K/yr
[#14] Ongoing liaison/implementation costs for carrier and ISP-level blocks/technical cooperation (budgeted midpoint).
Software Maintenance $150K/yr
[#13, #16] Vendor partnerships and signature maintenance (~$100k/yr) plus mitigation app maintenance ($50k/yr).
Supplies And Consumables $80K/yr
[#25] Operational consumables, translation services, petty operational expenses (midpoint of $50–150k/yr).
Audits $50K/yr
[#24] Annual third-party containment audits and red-team testing ($25–75k per audit, midpoint used).
Replacement Amortization $35K/yr
[#22] Annual amortized replacement/upgrades for phones, servers, and lab equipment (~$20–50k/yr midpoint).
Facilities Maintenance $20K/yr
[#17, #15] Upkeep of secure rooms, air-gap maintenance, routine physical/site maintenance.
Logistics And Transport $20K/yr
[#25, #21] Travel to international providers, onsite liaison travel and comms/data-plan modest recurring costs (includes secure comms SIMs/data).
Personnel Vetting $20K/yr
[#20] Ongoing monitoring and periodic re-vetting of staff (continuous monitoring budgets).
Training And Sop $20K/yr
[#18] Periodic refresher training and SOP updates ($10–30k/yr midpoint).
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $3.6M/yr
70.0% probability / year
Normal year with routine monitoring, takedowns, and no major incidents or scale-ups.
routine_app_appearances no_large-scale_breaches standard_legal_and_pr_activity
🚨 Minor Incident $3.9M/yr
15.0% probability / year +$300K vs baseline
Regional or intermittent spike in appearances requiring emergency takedown spending and incident PR/legal support.
clustered_store_resurgences localized_media_attention rapid buyouts/expedited takedowns
🚨 Major Breach $6.1M/yr
5.0% probability / year +$2.5M vs baseline
Widespread simultaneous appearances across multiple stores/carriers requiring carrier-level cooperation, large buyouts, and extensive legal action.
global_resurgence carrier_level_blocking_required class_action_or_regulatory_exposure
🚨 Research Scale Up $4.1M/yr
10.0% probability / year +$500K vs baseline
Decision to aggressively develop and deploy mitigation (mitigation app, accelerated R&D, expanded trials) requiring additional one-off/annual R&D spend.
approved_mitigation_development successful_pilot_requires_scaling policy_decision_to_reduce_reliance_on_takedowns
👥 Personnel 13 total
Role Count Notes
Research Scientist / Analyst / Dev 4 [#1] Monitoring/takedown analysts and classifier developers (~$90k each).
Team Manager / Research Manager 1 [#1] Manager for monitoring/takedown team (~$140k).
Monitoring Watch Staff 3 [#7] 24/7 watch/duty rotation to monitor interactions and logs (~$80–100k each).
Psychologist / Medical Officer 3 [#8] Senior psychologist + clinicians for oversight and ethics (~$140k + 2x $90k).
Security Officer / MTF Agent 2 [#17] Physical security personnel assigned to sensitive facilities and travel security.
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes provide detailed line items and ranges; however large uncertainties remain around platform/carrier cooperation costs, frequency of large-scale appearances, and discretionary contingency spending, so midpoint estimates are used.
← SCP-5433 ↑ All SCPs SCP-5435 →