SCP-8779 — SCP-8779 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-8779 Safe ~ medium confidence

SCP-8779

Expected annual

$604K

One-time setup

$496K

Annual recurring

$596K

Personnel

2.25

Initial one-time setup is modest (~$496.5k) dominated by an initial buyback reserve and destruction/analysis equipment; recurring annual costs are ~ $595.5k/year driven by staff wages, ongoing buybacks, contingency and monitoring/analysis.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $496K

Buyback Initial Reserve $250K

[#13] Initial reserve recommended for purchase/confiscation of copies in circulation (recommended ~$250,000).

Equipment $120K

[#5, #6, #11, #18] Controlled-playback workstation (Faraday cage, A/V capture), sandbox / secure server setup (hardware & proxy), archival setup hardware, and secure destruction equipment/protocol costs for destruction campaigns.

Initial Research And Lab Setup $103K

[#4, #20] Forensic imaging equipment and initial research project setup (ML / compute / licensed databases) for deeper analysis.

Emergency Response Setup $10K

[#26] Initial setup for emergency incident response team and readiness (equipment, SOPs).

Facilities $7K

[#1] Secure containment locker installation, certification, signage and basic intrusion detection.

Training Initial $6K

[#24] Initial staff training and tabletop exercises for memetic/containment SOPs.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $596K/yr

Staff Wages $232K/yr

[#3, #8, #9] Custodial/security FTE (~$70k/year), software/firmware analyst staffing (0.75 FTE equivalent, ~$112.5k/year), part-time psychology/medical monitoring (~$50k/year).

Cover Story And Legal $90K/yr

[#16, #22] Legal/IP mitigation retainer and public-relations/cover/hush payments.

Contingency Fund $75K/yr

[#27] Miscellaneous contingency (10-20% of projected annual budget) for unforeseen costs.

Buyback Annual $50K/yr

[#14] Recurring buyback and field seizure budget to acquire discovered copies.

Volunteer Testing $40K/yr

[#10] Controlled human-subject study costs (recruitment, compensation, medical standby) aggregated per year.

Logistics And Transport $30K/yr

[#15] Field operations, evidence transport, travel, covert purchase operational expenses.

Insurance And Liability $30K/yr

[#23] Site liability insurance and incident reserves for medical/psychological care.

Research And Monitoring $20K/yr

[#21] Advanced analysis ongoing costs (cloud compute, dataset licensing, model maintenance).

Online Takedown Service $15K/yr

[#17] Monitoring for leaked ROMs, takedown actions and platform enforcement.

Emergency Drills $5K/yr

[#26] Annual drills, on-call readiness and periodic exercises.

Sandbox Server Maintenance $3K/yr

[#7] Sandbox/server patching, storage for daily updates, bandwidth and instrumentation maintenance.

Training Refresher $2K/yr

[#25] Annual retraining and SOP updates.

Supplies And Consumables $2K/yr

[#19] Batteries, replacement consoles, capture device replacements, cables, storage media.

Archival Storage $800/yr

[#11, #12] Offsite encrypted backups recurring storage and periodic integrity audits.

Facilities Maintenance $700/yr

[#2] Climate control, sensors, calibration and power for containment locker monitoring.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $596K/yr

94.0% probability / year

Normal operational year with routine monitoring, buybacks, testing, and no major incidents.

routine monitoring scheduled testing regular buybacks

🚨 Minor Incident $670K/yr

5.0% probability / year +$75K vs baseline

Localized incident (e.g., player medical event or small public disclosure) requiring medical care, targeted buybacks and legal action.

single-player adverse medical event small public leak localized legal claim

🚨 Major Breach $1.1M/yr

1.0% probability / year +$500K vs baseline

Significant containment breach or widespread circulation requiring large-scale buybacks, cyber takedowns, major legal/PR response and extended recovery.

widespread leak / black-market surge external infrastructure producing updates multiple missing personnel / major legal action

👥 Personnel 2.25 total

Role	Count	Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent	1.0	[#3] Dedicated site-level custody/security FTE budgeted as incremental responsibility.
Research Scientist / Software Analyst	0.75	[#8] Reverse-engineering and software/firmware analysis staffing (0.5–1.0 FTE recommended; model uses 0.75 FTE).
Medical Officer / Psychologist	0.5	[#9] Part-time behavioral health oversight and on-call psych support for testing and screening.

📋 Confidence Notes

Notes provide detailed line-item ranges for almost every cost, but there is significant uncertainty around circulation size (buyback scale), frequency/severity of incidents, and staffing FTEs; therefore a medium confidence rating is appropriate.

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