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SCP-720 Electronic ~ medium confidence
SCP-720
Expected annual
$865K
One-time setup
$426K
Annual recurring
$852K
Personnel
7
Initial capital outlays are modest (~$426,500) for a secure vault, instrumentation, and initial cybersecurity; recurring annual operations dominate costs (~$852,500/yr) driven by staff wages (security, containment, embedded agents) and ongoing research, legal, and monitoring obligations.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $426K
Facilities $225K
[#1] Construction of a small secure, shielded, climate-controlled vault with alarm integration, HVAC, fire suppression, and access control.
Equipment $72K
[#2, #4, #5, #9, #19] Includes redundant physical storage media & write-protection hardware (#2), isolated air-gapped test rig hardware (#4), initial UPS/generator purchase (#5), digital forensics kit & imaging equipment (#9), and specialist oscilloscopes/spectrum analyzers/FPGA dev (#19).
Emergency Destruction Fund $55K
[#23] One-time contingency fund to perform secure e-waste destruction, incineration, permitting, and specialist contractor fees if neutralization required.
Cybersecurity Initial Audit $40K
[#8a] One-time cybersecurity/EM-audit, hardening, and initial penetration/testing setup.
Cover Identity Setup $12K
[#15] One-time creation of cover identities, training for embedded agents, vehicle/equipment for cover, and initial legal/correspondence setup.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $12K
[#18, #20] Initial analysis hardware for reverse engineering (#18) and initial archival migration/ingest costs (#20).
Policy And Sop Development $10K
[#21a] One-time drafting of containment SOPs, handling procedures, and initial training curriculum development.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $852K/yr
Staff Wages $485K/yr
[#6, #7, #10, #14] On-site security staffing (#6), containment officer/records manager & admin support (#7), forensic/lab specialist time (#10) and embedded agents with CHP monitoring & liaison operations (#14).
Research And Monitoring $135K/yr
[#8b, #11, #18] Annual cybersecurity retesting and monitoring (#8b), authorized test program budget (#11), and ongoing research/reverse-engineering budget (#18 recurring).
Cover Story And Legal $80K/yr
[#13, #22] Human-subjects compliance, liability/legal counsel (#13), and media suppression / PR & legal contingency fund (#22).
Logistics And Transport $45K/yr
[#16, #17] Secure evidence transport & storage for seized materials (#16) and travel/surveillance/field ops budget for agents and monitoring (#17).
Insurance And Overhead $40K/yr
[#24] Property/liability insurance, utilities beyond containment energy, janitorial, and general institutional overhead allocated to the program.
Incident Response Reserve $30K/yr
[#25] Annual reserve for rapid-response team mobilization, overtime, and emergency mobilization for unexpected behavior or leak handling.
Medical And Psych Monitoring $15K/yr
[#12] Annual medical & psychological screening, monitoring, counseling, and emergency care fund for testers/staff.
Facilities Maintenance $10K/yr
[#1, #5] Ongoing maintenance for vault environmental systems, alarms, and UPS/generator maintenance/fuel (#5).
Supplies And Consumables $8K/yr
[#3, #20] Annual media integrity inspections and media refresh budget (#3) plus periodic archive migration/consumables (#20).
Training And Audits $5K/yr
[#21b] Recurring refresher training and periodic third-party audits related to SOPs and handling procedures.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $852K/yr
85.0% probability / year
Normal uneventful year with scheduled maintenance, routine testing, and no containment incidents.
scheduled_inspections authorized_tests routine_research_activity
🚨 Minor Incident $882K/yr
12.0% probability / year +$30K vs baseline
Small containment incident or operational disruption (e.g., degraded media discovered, localized thermal/equipment failure, minor legal challenge) requiring overtime, emergency media replacement, and short-term legal/PR work.
media_degradation localized_equipment_failure minor_leak_or_exposure
🚨 Major Breach $1.2M/yr
3.0% probability / year +$300K vs baseline
Significant adverse event such as public exposure, large-scale seizure, or decision to execute emergency destruction requiring large legal, PR, replacement, and destruction expenditures.
public_exposure evidence_seizure_conflict emergency_neutralization
👥 Personnel 7 total
Role Count Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent 3 [#6] On-site guard coverage for facility/vault during non-business hours; estimate assumes 2–4 guards (3 used here).
Containment Officer / Records Manager 1 [#7] Full-time staff to manage access authorization, logging, scheduling, and chain-of-custody.
Embedded Agent (CHP liaison) 2 [#14] Agents embedded with California Highway Patrol for monitoring and evidence seizure operations; assumed 1–2 agents (2 used here).
Forensic Specialist / Lab Technician 1 [#10] Specialist labor for imaging, inspections, and supervised test runs; counted as 1 FTE/contractor reflected in staff_wages.
📋 Confidence Notes
Estimates are based on analyst-provided ranges and typical institutional costs; line items and recurring duties are well-described but several items (embedded ops, emergency destruction extent, legal/PR spend) are inherently variable, so confidence is medium.
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