Incident Impact Calculator
An incident impact calculator turns three inputs, severity, affected users and downtime hours, into a rough cost, a compliance exposure rating, a trust-damage rating and the response actions the severity demands. It is for sizing an incident quickly during triage and for making the case for prevention spend.
Last reviewed by the Radiatus Cloud team
Want this done for your business?
Radiatus delivers cloud, security & automation for growing teams.
How the estimate is built
Pick a severity from low (a minor glitch) to critical (a full breach or ransomware). Each level sets a base per-user cost, a compliance exposure (from none to a full regulatory report) and a trust-damage rating. The cost combines a scaled per-user figure with downtime at roughly 1,000 dollars per hour, and the user count is dampened so a ten-times-larger incident does not read as ten times the cost, which matches how fixed response costs dominate smaller breaches.
What each severity triggers
- Low: log and monitor; no external obligation.
- Medium: internal notification, patch, post-mortem.
- High: notify affected users, legal review, GDPR or CCPA assessment.
- Critical: activate the crisis team, PR control, and law enforcement where applicable.
Reading the output
The number is an order-of-magnitude figure, not a forecast. Its purpose is comparison: set it against the annual cost of the control that would have prevented or contained the incident. If a high-severity estimate dwarfs the cost of the logging or endpoint detection that would have caught it early, the calculator has done its job. The compliance and trust ratings are qualitative prompts to trigger the right response track, not scores.
What it leaves out
Regulatory fines, ransom payments and the cost of rebuilding systems are not modelled; those vary too widely to assume. Use the breach cost estimator and the regulatory penalty estimator alongside it for those components, and substitute your own revenue per hour for the flat downtime figure.
Related tools
- Incident Downtime Cost Calculator — Estimate the cost of an incident across lost revenue, staff time and recovery, and build the case for prevention.
- Data Breach Cost Estimator — Estimate what a data breach would cost from records exposed, cost per record, days to detect and hours of downtime, split into direct and indirect costs.
- Regulatory Penalty Estimator — Estimate potential fines for GDPR/CCPA violations.
- BCP RTO/RPO Calculator — Estimate the business cost of an outage from recovery time objective, recovery point objective, revenue per hour and data re-entry cost, to justify backup and DR investment.
Frequently Asked Questions
How accurate is the cost figure?
It is an order-of-magnitude estimate for triage and budgeting, not a forecast. Its value is relative: comparing the cost of an incident against the cost of the control that would have prevented it.
Why is the user count dampened rather than multiplied straight?
Because incident cost per user falls as the number of affected users rises; fixed response costs dominate small incidents. Scaling linearly would overstate large incidents, so the calculator flattens the curve.
Does it include regulatory fines?
No. Fines depend on jurisdiction, negligence and cooperation and range from nothing to a percentage of turnover. Add them separately with the regulatory penalty estimator; here the compliance rating only flags which response track applies.
What downtime cost does it assume?
Roughly 1,000 dollars per hour as a small-business placeholder. Substitute your own revenue and staff cost per hour for a figure that fits your operation.
What are the compliance and trust ratings for?
They are qualitative prompts, not scores. They tell you whether an incident of that severity triggers internal handling, user notification, or a full regulatory and crisis response, so the right track starts early.
Privacy & Security
Calculations are local.
About This Tool
This tool runs entirely in your browser. No data is sent to any server, ensuring complete privacy. Simply use the interface above to get started — no registration or login required.
Disclaimer: This tool is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Results are for educational and utility purposes.
Related Tools
Incident Downtime Cost Calculator
BusinessEstimate the cost of an incident across lost revenue, staff time and recovery, and build the case for prevention.
Data Breach Cost Estimator
BusinessEstimate what a data breach would cost from records exposed, cost per record, days to detect and hours of downtime, split into direct and indirect costs.
Regulatory Penalty Estimator
BusinessEstimate potential fines for GDPR/CCPA violations.