FBI shows simulated town built for cyberattack drills
The Huntsville, Alabama, cyber range lets students test attacks on town systems without connecting malware to outside networks.
By Hana Yoshida · Markets Reporter
2 min read
The FBI has shown the public a cyber training site in Huntsville, Alabama, that is built to resemble a small town. The facility matters because it gives students a place to study how digital attacks can hit real-world systems, from hospitals to home networks, without exposing outside networks to malware.
The FBI says the Kinetic Cyber Range opened last year as a 22,000-square-foot environment for training and research. The Verge reported that the bureau released a video this week that offered the public its first look inside the site.
The range includes town-like buildings and services, according to the FBI and The Verge. The setup includes a convenience store, a gas station, a hospital and fully furnished houses, along with a hotel and a data center.
The Verge compared the training role of the site to Hogan’s Alley, the FBI’s well-known law enforcement training town. The newer range is aimed at cybercrime training, with physical spaces tied to the kinds of networks and devices investigators may encounter in actual cases.
How the range works
The FBI says the buildings and facilities in the simulated town are connected in ways that mirror a real community. That lets instructors recreate attacks and let students examine how a breach moves across systems.
The site also includes a small data center with more than 200 servers, according to The Verge. Those servers can be hacked, infected with malware and studied as part of controlled exercises.
The FBI says the range is isolated from outside networks. That separation is intended to keep malicious code or other test activity contained inside the training environment.
Students use the range to practice forensic investigations on several types of technology, The Verge reported. Those include car entertainment systems, hospital computer networks and corporate security systems.
The exercises also let students observe how cyberattacks could affect power grids or spread through home networks, according to The Verge. The point of the setup is to connect digital evidence and network behavior to physical settings that investigators can walk through and inspect.
Public look came after opening
The facility had already opened before the FBI released the new video, The Verge reported. The video gave outside viewers a look at the bureau’s controlled town and the systems built into it.
The FBI describes the range as a place for both training and research. By building a contained version of a connected community, the bureau can run scenarios that would be difficult or unsafe to conduct on public infrastructure or live business networks.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.