The FBI built its own replica small town to simulate real-world cyberattacks

5 hours ago

The FBI built a 22,000-square-foot replica town in Huntsville, Alabama, called the Kinetic Cyber Range to train law enforcement in simulating and investigating cyberattacks.
The training facility, opened in February 2025, mimics a real U.S. community with houses, a hotel, a gas station, a courthouse, a hospital, and a power company, all wired with functional devices and systems.
It includes a data center with over 200 physical servers running Windows and Linux to replicate corporate environments for hands-on breach response and search warrant execution training.
The facility has trained more than 1,400 students, including FBI personnel and partners from federal and local agencies, in a secure environment to prevent simulated attacks from escaping.
Training focuses on ransomware attacks, real-world consequences, and high-pressure decision-making, such as responding to incidents that could harm people, like hospital systems failing.
It also covers digital forensics, using controversial tools that exploit undisclosed vulnerabilities in encrypted devices from companies like Apple or Google to extract data for criminal investigations.
This initiative addresses rising cybercrime, with the FBI's 2025 report noting a record $20.9 billion in U.S. losses, a 26% increase, and ransomware as the top threat to critical infrastructure.

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