FBI Built a 22,000-Sq-Ft Fake Town to Train for
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- The FBI opened a Cyber Range in Huntsville, Alabama last year, a 22,000-square-foot replica of an entire town designed for simulating cyberattacks.
- The Kinetic Cyber Range includes a fake hotel, convenience store, gas station, hospital, fully furnished houses, and its own data center with over 200 servers.
- Trainees can hack, infect with malware, and study the town's systems, including car entertainment systems, hospital computer networks, and corporate security setups.
- All systems in the simulated town are cut off from the outside world, so malicious code or malware cannot escape containment.
- The FBI shared its first public video of the facility this week, despite the Cyber Range having opened in 2024.
Why it matters: The Cyber Range gives FBI trainees a hands-on environment mirroring the interconnected systems real attackers exploit — power grids, home networks, hospital IT. Air-gapping the 200+ server data center lets them deploy live malware safely, a step beyond standard classroom simulation. The facility was already operational last year, but the bureau waited until this week to show it off publicly.
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