SOURCES

Data Classification Standards

GDPR Special Categories (Tier 1 classification basis)

• Source: Regulation (EU) 2016/679 — Article 9 “Processing of special categories of personal data”
• URL: https://gdpr-info.eu/art-9-gdpr/ (opens in a new tab)
• What it says: Biometric data, health data, genetic data, racial/ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, sex life/orientation are “special categories” requiring explicit consent.
• Our use: These map directly to Tier 1 in data-classification.md

PCI-DSS Data Classification

• Source: PCI Security Standards Council — PCI DSS v4.0 (March 2022)
• URL: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/document_library/ (opens in a new tab)
• What it says: Primary Account Number (PAN), cardholder name, expiration date, service code = cardholder data. CVV = sensitive authentication data. Both must be protected.
• Our use: Maps to Tier 2 PCI-DSS in data-classification.md

HIPAA Protected Health Information (PHI) Definition

• Source: 45 CFR Part 160 and Part 164 (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
• URL: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/special-topics/de-identification/index.html (opens in a new tab)
• What it says: The 18 HIPAA identifiers that make health data “protected” — includes names, geographic data, dates, phone numbers, emails, SSNs, medical record numbers, health plan IDs, etc.
• Our use: Tier 1 PHI fields in data-classification.md

GDPR Fine Formulas

Source: Regulation (EU) 2016/679 — Article 83 “General conditions for imposing administrative fines” URL: https://gdpr-info.eu/art-83-gdpr/ (opens in a new tab)

Exact legal text (Article 83.4):

“Infringements of the following provisions shall…be subject to administrative fines up to 10 000 000 EUR, or in the case of an undertaking, up to 2 % of the total worldwide annual turnover of the preceding financial year, whichever is higher…”

Exact legal text (Article 83.5):

“Infringements of the following provisions shall…be subject to administrative fines up to 20 000 000 EUR, or in the case of an undertaking, up to 4 % of the total worldwide annual turnover of the preceding financial year, whichever is higher…”

Our formula: Directly transcribed from Article 83.4 (Tier 1 violations) and Article 83.5 (Tier 2 violations). No interpretation added.

Historic fines for calibration (all publicly verified):

CCPA / CPRA Fine Formula

Source: California Civil Code § 1798.155(a) — California Consumer Privacy Act URL: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=1798.155 (opens in a new tab)

Note (as of June 30, 2025): Stats. 2025, Ch. 20, Sec. 1 (AB 137) amended § 1798.155. The administrative fine amounts are now in subsection (a). Old references to § 1798.155(b) for fine amounts are incorrect under the amended text. Verify at the URL above for any future changes.

Exact statutory text (§ 1798.155(a) as amended):

“Any business, service provider, contractor, or other person that violates this title shall be liable for an administrative fine of not more than two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) for each violation or seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500) for each intentional violation…”

Private Right of Action source: California Civil Code § 1798.150 URL: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=1798.150 (opens in a new tab)

Exact statutory text:

“Any consumer whose nonencrypted and nonredacted personal information…is subject to an unauthorized access and exfiltration…may institute a civil action for…damages in an amount not less than one hundred dollars ($100) and not greater than seven hundred and fifty ($750) per consumer per incident or actual damages, whichever is greater…”

Our formula: Directly transcribed. $2,500 / $7,500 per violation comes verbatim from § 1798.155(a) (as amended June 30, 2025). $100–$750 private right of action comes verbatim from § 1798.150.

HIPAA Fine Formula

Source: 45 CFR § 160.404 — Civil Money Penalties URL: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/subtitle-A/subchapter-C/part-160/subpart-D/section-160.404 (opens in a new tab)

Source (HHS penalty tiers explained): HHS Office for Civil Rights URL: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/compliance-enforcement/agreements/index.html (opens in a new tab)

HHS OCR penalty tiers (current inflation-adjusted 2024 amounts):

• Tier A (no knowledge): $137–$68,928 per violation, $2,067,813 annual cap
• Tier B (reasonable cause): $1,379–$68,928, $2,067,813 annual cap
• Tier C (willful, corrected): $13,785–$68,928, $2,067,813 annual cap
• Tier D (willful, not corrected): $68,928–$1,919,173, $1,919,173 annual cap

URL for current amounts: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/compliance-enforcement/examples/all-cases/index.html (opens in a new tab)

Note on our figures: The dollar amounts in regulatory-impact.md match HHS’s inflation-adjusted 2024 penalty tiers. HHS adjusts these annually. Always verify against the HHS OCR website for the current year.

Criminal penalties source: 42 U.S.C. § 1320d-6 URL: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title42-section1320d-6 (opens in a new tab)

LGPD Fine Formula

Source: Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais (LGPD) — Lei nº 13.709/2018, Article 52 URL: https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2015-2018/2018/lei/l13709.htm (opens in a new tab)

Exact text (Art. 52, I): Fine of up to 2% of revenue of a private legal entity or group in Brazil in its last fiscal year, limited to R$50,000,000 (fifty million reais) per infraction.

Our formula: Verbatim from Article 52.

Singapore PDPA Fine Formula

Source: Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (Singapore) — Section 48J URL: https://sso.agc.gov.sg/Act/PDPA2012 (opens in a new tab)

Maximum fine: S$1,000,000 per breach OR 10% of annual turnover in Singapore (if turnover > S$10M) — whichever is higher, per the 2021 amendment.

Breach Cost Benchmarks

Source: IBM Security — “Cost of a Data Breach Report” (published annually since 2005) URL: https://www.ibm.com/reports/data-breach (opens in a new tab) Publisher: IBM Security + Ponemon Institute Methodology (2024 edition): Survey of 604 organizations across 17 industries in 16 countries/regions. Each breach involved 2,170–113,954 compromised records.

Last-verified figures (IBM 2024 edition):

2025 update: The IBM 2025 report (live at the URL above) reports a 9% decrease in the global average from $4.88M. The exact 2025 figure requires downloading the report PDF. Skill maintainers: update this table annually when a new edition is published.

Breach Notification Timelines

Blast Radius Formula Basis

The scoring formula structure is adapted from established risk quantification frameworks:

What the formula is NOT: It is not a legally recognized standard. It is a planning heuristic based on accepted risk frameworks, producing a relative score to compare exposure vectors — not an absolute prediction of breach cost.

What Is Estimated vs. What Is Exact