The Georgian Information Crisis was a course of events that occured in late-2004 where a cell of Georgians and Russians (under the leadership of Kombayn Nikoladze) had launched a series of Information Warfare attacks on the United States.
Overview[]
On April 29, 2004, the President of Georgia was assassinated in a suicide bombing by Abkhazian separatist rebels. Soon after, industrial businessman Kombayn Nikoladze seized power in a bloodless coup d'etat on May 1, having strong political and military support. He promised to hold elections, establish profitable and good relationships with America and the west, and to boost the economy, overseeing the rapid installation of fiber optics throughout his country.
The CIA had inserted a mole inside of Nikoladze's cabinet who went missing in early October. When the CIA sent another agent to investigate this disappearance, he vanished too. On October 16, 2004, the NSA sent Sam Fisher, a field agent of the newly established Third Echelon, to the Georgian capital Tbilisi to investigate. After discovering that both CIA agents had been killed, Fisher also discovered evidence of a secret Georgian invasion of their oil rich neighbor Azerbaijan. Using information warfare techniques, Nikoladze was able to mobilize thousands of commando units into Azerbaijan within a few weeks without alerting international authorities. In response to this, American and NATO troops launched a military campaign to push Georgian forces out of Azerbaijan. Nikoladze and his top advisors went into hiding and by October 27, most of the Georgian commando units had been neutralized, with only a few hidden cells still in operation.
This is the point where Georgia strikes back. Philip Masse, a Canadian computer hacker with brilliant technological skills who is serving with President Nikoladze, launches the 'Georgian information crisis' against the United States. Their main targets are power plants, sources of communication, and everyone's means of transportation. These attacks begin on October 30 of that year, and dozens of Americans die in the midst of power failures and accidents that cause destruction and disarray in all of America's largest cities. The first cities to be attacked are:
- New York, New York
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Washington D.C.
- Chicago, Illinois
- Detroit, Michigan
- Jackson, Mississippi
- Miami, Florida
- Seattle, Washington
- San Francisco, California
- Los Angeles, California
- San Diego, California
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Houston, Texas
- Dallas, Texas
Following the first wave of these attacks, the U.S. goes on high alert, and Fisher infiltrates the CIA Headquarters at Langley, Virginia. His goal is to find a mole in the CIA suspected to be feeding data to the Georgian military; he finds that an American technician named Mitchell Dougherty, who suffers from OCD, has been unknowingly hoarding data on a computer that Russian mercenaries in the nearby Kalinatek Building have hacked into. This Russian cell was working in cooperation with Nikoladze's terrorist forces and used CIA intelligence to further Nikoladze's goals. However, they panic after Third Echelon hacks into their systems, and try to wipe out the evidence of their activities and massacre the Russian technicians who assisted with the initiation of the information crisis. Fisher saves a handful of technicians, and they give him evidence of Nikoladze's presence at a nuclear power plant in Severomorsk, Russia, so Fisher journeys there to find him.
Shortly after the attack on Kalinatek, Masse attacks the Pickett Gap Water Treatment Plant in Tennessee. The attack causes a virus that poisons the local population's water supplies, which puts thousands at risk of water intoxication. Fortunately, the plant's workers discover the virus and shut down the flow of water before it infects the population. The plant is shut down until the virus is wiped out and the water cleaned, and the people of Tennessee must boil their available water.
Nikoladze tries to kill a handful of American POWs and diplomats from the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar on live television in order to intimidate NATO, but Fisher saves them before Nikoladze's men can stop him. Nikoladze then flees back to Georgia to steal the detonator for "The Ark", a mysterious weapon that is discovered to be a nuclear suitcase bomb. Nikoladze has managed to get the actual device into Washington, D.C., and stole the activation key so that he could destroy the capital at will. Fortunately, despite heavy resistance from both Nikoladze's men and those who were loyal to Varlam Cristavi, Georgian's acting President, Fisher assassinates Nikoladze and escapes with the activation key. After the key is handed in to U.S. authorities, they discover the "Ark" and confiscate the device.
With the discovery of the Ark and the death of Kombayn Nikoladze, the Georgian information crisis officially ends.
Known Cyber Attacks[]
Red Bear[]
October 30, The Red Bear army community hospital in Mississippi was hit by a cyber attack, cutting electricity off to the hospital. It resulted in 17 deaths and over 30 injuries. Both county electricity and backup generators were destroyed. Intel suggests two men working with the Georgians were on site to destroy the backup generator.
Military Train Collision[]
October 30, a military train collided with a commuter rail-line after an apparent failure of its automated routing system in Odenton, Maryland. Rescue workers were unable to respond for over an hour to their information grid being entirely disabled. Federal authorities evacuated a 20 mile radius surrounding the wreckage. Initials reports indicate the deaths of over 40 enlisted men. Civilian casualties were much lower.
Edison Bend[]
A nuclear power plant in New Jersey had its cooling rods withdrawn causing a meltdown on either the 3rd or 4 November. The surrounding area was declared safe after a cleanup on November 10, and last of victims of the incident left hospital on the November 12th.
St. John Dam[]
November 6, a logic bomb was used to target the pressure management systems for the St. John Dam which burst. There were 37 reported deaths among security and emergency service personnel.
Pickett Gap Program[]
November 10, the Pickett Gap water treatment plant in Tennessee was targeted by a remote viral attack. Plant employees were able to intervene and avoid a potential catastrophe with contamination.