The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has unveiled a cyber defense training facility within a campus in Huntsville, Alabama. This approximately 22,000-square-foot “replica town” enables law enforcement to practice investigating cyberattacks, on-site response, and digital forensics in a realistic environment.
Available in February 2025
The facility, named Kinetic Cyber Range, became operational in February 2025. According to the FBI, it includes replicas of residential homes, hotels, gas stations, grocery stores, courthouses, hospitals, and power companies, along with roads and traffic signal systems, all designed to simulate an authentic American community.
The FBI stated that since the facility opened, it has trained over 1,400 participants, including FBI personnel and partners from other federal and local agencies.
Simulate real system and attack consequences
All buildings within the town are connected to operational devices and systems, designed to closely mimic real-world community and business environments. Additionally, all exercises are confined to a closed premises to prevent simulated attacks from spilling outside.
The facility also includes a data center equipped with over 200 physical servers running both Windows and Linux systems. The FBI stated that this setup more closely resembles the real-world environments investigators typically encounter during corporate breaches or when executing search warrants.
The training ground can also simulate ransomware attacks and their cascading effects, including high-pressure scenarios such as hospital system outages, to train investigators how to make rapid decisions when public safety may be at risk.
Losses from cybercrime continue to rise
The FBI cited its 2025 Internet Crime Report, stating that cybercrime losses in the United States have risen to $20.9 billion, a 26% increase from the previous year. The report, based on over one million complaints, continues to identify ransomware as the top persistent threat to critical infrastructure.
In addition to incident response, this facility is also used for digital forensics training. Related work typically involves extracting data from encrypted devices for criminal investigations.
However, these forensic tools themselves are controversial, as some rely on security vulnerabilities not disclosed to device manufacturers to bypass protection mechanisms set by companies like Apple and Google.