technology
FBI Opens Kinetic Cyber Range Replica Town in Huntsville for Cyberattack Training
The 22,000 square-foot facility opened in February 2025 and has trained more than 1,400 students. It includes houses, a hospital, a data center, and other infrastructure to simulate ransomware and digital forensics scenarios.
TechCrunchAudio version
Tap play to generate a narrated version.
Developing·Limited corroboration so far. This page will refresh as more sources emerge.
The FBI opened a 22,000 square-foot replica town called the Kinetic Cyber Range on its Huntsville, Alabama campus in February 2025 to train investigators in simulating and responding to cyberattacks. The facility contains fully furnished houses, a hotel, a gas station, a grocery mart, a courthouse, a hospital, a power company, roads, and traffic lights.
A data center inside the range holds more than 200 physical servers running Windows and Linux.
All systems are isolated from external networks. The setup allows trainees to practice ransomware attacks on hospital systems and other critical infrastructure without risk of simulated threats escaping. Since opening, the Kinetic Cyber Range has trained more than 1,400 students, including FBI personnel and partners from other federal and local agencies.
Students also conduct digital forensics exercises on encrypted modern devices such as car entertainment systems and corporate networks. The FBI released a video this week showing the interior of the facility. Dave Beachboard, the range’s program manager, described the data center environment as cold, cramped, noisy, dark, and miserable.
U.S. cybercrime losses from more than one million complaints. Losses rose 26 percent from the prior year, and ransomware ranked as the top ongoing threat to critical infrastructure.
