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SCP-6263 Unknown ~ medium confidence
SCP-6263
Expected annual
$3.6M
One-time setup
$1.8M
Annual recurring
$3.5M
Personnel
15
One-time setup costs are moderate (~$1.8M) for secure workspace, IT, initial studies and legal seed reserves; ongoing yearly operations are significant (~$3.49M/yr) dominated by specialized personnel, legal/PR, cloud monitoring, and contingency reserves.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $1.8M
Legal Exposure Reserve $625K
[#19] Legal exposure / litigation contingency reserve (midpoint chosen from $250k–$1,000k range).
Litigation Reserve Seed $500K
[#5] Litigation reserve seed (note 5: ~$500k one-time litigation reserve).
Equipment $200K
[#11] Secure IT infrastructure initial purchase (on‑prem servers, hardened workstations, encrypted backups ~ $200k).
Initial Research And Lab Setup $170K
[#8, #9] Initial experimental program (3 studies ≈ $150k) + IRB/setup/legal review one-time setup (~$20k).
Facilities $150K
[#10] Secure operations space & office fit-out (~$150k one-time fit-out).
Software Development $35K
[#15] Custom software / prevention tools development (~$35k one-time, mid-range).
Cybersecurity Setup $30K
[#18] Cybersecurity/OPSEC one-time hardening & setup (~$30k).
Cloud Integration Setup $25K
[#12] Initial cloud services / ingestion integration/setup (~$25k one-time).
Training Program Development $10K
[#7] Mental-health / behavior modification training development (~$10k one-time).
Data Migration $10K
[#13] Data storage / long-term archive initial migration/setup (~$10k one-time).
Setup Summary $0
[#25] One-time total setup summary (presented as a summary in notes; costs are itemized above; summary entry set to 0 to avoid double-counting).
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $3.5M/yr
Staff Wages $1.8M/yr
[#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #7] Senior project lead (~$180k/yr), research team (4×$120k ≈ $480k), computational team (2×$140k = $280k), social-media analysts (4×$60k = $240k), in-house attorneys (2×$200k ≈ $400k), mental-health therapists (2 part‑time ≈ $240k total).
Contingency Reserve $400K/yr
[#24] Contingency / escalation reserve (recommended 10–20% of operating budget; midpoint used).
Cover Story And Legal $330K/yr
[#5, #6, #20] Ongoing public relations / influence ops baseline (~$100k/yr) + outside legal retainer (~$250k/yr) and cover narrative production (~$80k included in total).
Administrative Overhead $200K/yr
[#22] Administrative overhead (HR, accounting, utilities, benefits admin; midpoint of $150k–$300k range).
Cloud Services $120K/yr
[#12] Cloud services and continuous ingestion/NLP processing (~$120k/yr mid-range).
Research And Monitoring $110K/yr
[#8, #9, #12] Ongoing experimental studies (~2 studies/yr × $50k = $100k/yr) + IRB/compliance monitoring (~$10k/yr).
Logistics And Transport $100K/yr
[#16] Rapid-response incident team & travel budget for emergency takedowns, jurisdictional travel, meetings (~$100k/yr mid-range).
Facilities Maintenance $96K/yr
[#10] Secure office/lab lease (~$8k/mo ≈ $96k/yr) and basic facility maintenance.
Covert Account Management $85K/yr
[#17] Covert account management & bot infrastructure (~$85k/yr mid-range depending on scale/opsec).
Monitoring Licenses $78K/yr
[#14] Monitoring licenses / API access / third-party monitoring (~$78k/yr midpoint).
Cybersecurity $50K/yr
[#18] Ongoing cybersecurity, penetration testing, OPSEC (~$50k/yr ongoing).
Community Engagement $50K/yr
[#23] Community engagement / voluntary inoculation programs (pilot / outreach ~ $50k/yr).
Insurance $40K/yr
[#21] Insurance (liability, cyber, D&O) (~$40k/yr midpoint).
Software Maintenance $6K/yr
[#15] Ongoing maintenance for prevention tools (~$6k/yr mid-range).
Data Archiving $4K/yr
[#13] Data storage and long-term archiving (100 TB ≈ $2k–$6k/yr; midpoint used).
Supplies And Consumables $0/yr
[]
Program Scale Estimate $0/yr
[#26] Recurring yearly operating budget summary provided in notes (itemized above; summary entry set to 0 to avoid double-counting).
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $3.5M/yr
80.0% probability / year
Normal year with steady monitoring, research, and routine operations; no major public incidents.
no major leaks steady monitoring load routine studies
🚨 Minor Incident $3.8M/yr
18.0% probability / year +$350K vs baseline
Localized viral outbreak or public exposure requiring amplified rapid-response, extra legal action and targeted ad buys.
single-platform viral thread minor lawsuit or takedown demand
🚨 Major Breach $5.0M/yr
2.0% probability / year +$1.5M vs baseline
Widespread viral spread, major litigation, or regulatory exposure requiring large-scale PR/legal campaigns and program expansion.
global viral spread class-action or regulatory inquiry public exposure of containment tactics
👥 Personnel 15 total
Role Count Notes
Senior Project Staff / Site PI 1 [#1] Senior project staff (1 FTE, senior pay / clearance; $180k/yr).
Research Scientist (memetics/linguistics/cog sci) 4 [#2] Research team 3–5 FTE; midpoint 4 FTE accounted in staff wages.
Computational Team (NLP / Data Science) 2 [#3] Computational engineers / data scientists (2 FTE included).
Social-media Analyst / Moderator 4 [#4] Social-media analysts & moderators (4 FTE used for baseline staffing).
In-house Attorney / Legal Counsel 2 [#5] In-house legal staff (1–2 suggested; 2 included here; outside retainer is recurring/one-time as noted).
Mental-health Therapist (part-time) 2 [#7] Two part-time therapists providing counseling and staff training (costs accounted in staff wages).
📋 Confidence Notes
Analyst notes provide detailed salary and cost ranges allowing a reasonable mid-range estimate; uncertainty remains about incident frequency, scale of covert operations, and legal exposure which affects contingency and reserve sizing.
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