The virus was released by the "Church of the New Epoch", a religious group led by a group called "The Nine" and following a religious text known as "The Book of Cataclysm". The Church are seeking to undermine the world rule by corporations in favor of subjecting its parishioners to its own variety of mind control. "Harbinger" was their first step in demolishing the existing world order. The Nine began as the "Otherworld Research Group" (ORG), a group of top scientists who were researching alien technology found at an archeological dig site near Reykjavik. The ORG went into hiding to continue their research on "The Codex", an encrypted set of alien technological information, subsequently forming the Church.