The FBI covertly constructed a completely fictitious town solely for the purpose of practicing cyberattacks.

      Concealed within a warehouse in Alabama, the Kinetic Cyber Range recreates actual digital attacks from beginning to end.

      While Hollywood has artificial cities for movie filming, the FBI has established its own version for cybersecurity training. The agency unveiled its Kinetic Cyber Range, a 22,000-square-foot replica of a small town located discreetly within its Huntsville, Alabama facility. Rather than training personnel for armed confrontations or hostage situations, this facility is specifically designed to simulate authentic cyberattacks on homes, businesses, and vital infrastructure, allowing investigators to practice their responses in a controlled setting.

      The FBI constructed a complete town solely for the purpose of simulating cybercrime.

      This indoor facility features structures such as residences, a hotel, a gas station, a courthouse, and even a fully operational data center housing approximately 200 servers. Each building is equipped with operating systems, connected devices, and active networks to replicate the digital environments agents face during real-life investigations.

      Trainees at the FBI can examine simulated ransomware incidents, recover data from hacked vehicles, and trace digital identities across various interconnected systems. Since its opening last year, the facility has reportedly trained over 1,400 FBI staff and members of other government entities. The objective is straightforward: replace theoretical classroom instruction with realistic, hands-on experiences where mistakes can be made safely before agents encounter similar events in reality.

      Cybercrime has become too significant to learn from PowerPoint presentations.

      This concept may seem unusual, but it highlights how contemporary cyberattacks increasingly permeate the physical realm. Ransomware can incapacitate hospitals, compromised industrial systems can interrupt utilities, and hacked vehicles or IoT devices often necessitate that investigators possess knowledge of both hardware and software simultaneously.

      In many respects, the Kinetic Cyber Range serves as the cybersecurity counterpart to the FBI’s renowned Hogan’s Alley training town in Quantico, with bullets substituted for malware and forensic tools. As digital assaults continue to target everything from power grids to municipal infrastructure, having an entire simulated town where agents can safely dismantle and reconstruct systems before addressing real-world situations feels less like a futuristic idea and more like an essential requirement.