Inside the FBI’s mock city for cybersecurity training
Inside the FBI’s mock city for cybersecurity training
Publish Date: 2026-06-16 01:15:00
Source Domain: www.escudodigital.com
Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points.
The FBI has recreated a small city of about 2,000 square meters that it uses to train agents in the identification, investigation, and combat of cyberattacks, as well as to operate sensitive networks and data centers, simulating reality as faithfully as possible to face the malicious actors of daily life.
The U.S. agency has this technical training environment on the FBI campus in Huntsville, Alabama (United States), equipped with houses, hotel rooms, an electric company, a hospital, a gas station, and even a data center with more than 200 servers in operation.
All these spaces, reports EP, have facades and furniture, are wired, and integrate functional systems, networks, and devices designed to behave as they would in the real world, simulating the activity of businesses and current society.
Inaugurated in February of last year, the center known as Kinetic Cyber Range has already trained more than 1,400 students, including FBI personnel and partners from other agencies, representing a novel and completely realistic way of preparing agents, analysts, and forensic specialists, who “increasingly rely on digital evidence,” as the organization has now announced in a statement on its official website.
Advancing capabilities
Until now, this type of training was provided in classrooms; however, with the recreation of a real city, they aim to advance the agents’ capabilities, allowing them to immerse themselves in situations as similar as possible to daily life, dealing with people who run businesses or potential victims.
With all this, as exemplified by the FBI, students can face scenarios where they have to go through a house full of internet-connected devices and decide what to take for an investigation. Likewise, in the context of a search warrant at a company, they must collaborate with system administrators to access hidden data on a corporate network.
They also learn to deal with urgent cases, such as a simulated ransomware attack that locks a hospital’s network. In this situation, participants must respond as if patient care were at risk, mixing technical problems with human ones, as the organization has explained.
In other cases, the FBI has pointed out that agents train directly inside a data center, where exercises become “more physical” and students must handle operating servers, some with Windows operating systems and others with Linux.
As a result of all this, the agency has noted that they also achieve joint training between different departments. For example, the Operational Technology Division, which focuses on forensic computing, trains alongside the Cyber Division, which investigates computer intrusions.
Tracking activity on networks
For the cybersecurity research team, their exercises are more focused on tracking activity on networks, “rather than seizing devices.” In this way, they have to learn to trace the origin of an intrusion, identify how malware spreads, or follow the digital footprints of certain people.
However, all this is done in an isolated environment where agents can make mistakes without risks. “The objective is not only to teach technical skills but also to prepare investigators for the moments when those skills must be applied under pressure, when communication, good judgment, and restraint are as important as expertise,” emphasizes the FBI.
Additionally, the scenarios are constantly updated to reflect emerging cybersecurity threats, from connected devices to new forms of malicious activities, so that students are as prepared as possible.
The FBI has recreated a small city of about 2,000 square meters that it uses to train agents in the identification, investigation, and combat of cyberattacks, as well as to operate sensitive networks and data centers, simulating reality as faithfully as possible to face the malicious actors of daily life.
The U.S. agency has this technical training environment on the FBI campus in Huntsville, Alabama (United States), equipped with houses, hotel rooms, an electric company, a hospital, a gas station, and even a data center with more than 200 servers in operation.
All these spaces, reports EP, have facades and furniture, are wired, and integrate functional systems, networks, and devices designed to behave as they would in the real world, simulating the activity of businesses and current society.
Inaugurated in February of last year, the center known as Kinetic Cyber Range has already trained more than 1,400 students, including FBI personnel and partners from other agencies, representing a novel and completely realistic way of preparing agents, analysts, and forensic specialists, who “increasingly rely on digital evidence,” as the organization has now announced in a statement on its official website.
Advancing capabilities
Until now, this type of training was provided in classrooms; however, with the recreation of a real city, they aim to advance the agents’ capabilities, allowing them to immerse themselves in situations as similar as possible to daily life, dealing with people who run businesses or potential victims.
With all this, as exemplified by the FBI, students can face scenarios where they have to go through a house full of internet-connected devices and decide what to take for an investigation. Likewise, in the context of a search warrant at a company, they must collaborate with system administrators to access hidden data on a corporate network.
They also learn to deal with urgent cases, such as a simulated ransomware attack that locks a hospital’s network. In this situation, participants must respond as if patient care were at risk, mixing technical problems with human ones, as the organization has explained.
In other cases, the FBI has pointed out that agents train directly inside a data center, where exercises become “more physical” and students must handle operating servers, some with Windows operating systems and others with Linux.
As a result of all this, the agency has noted that they also achieve joint training between different departments. For example, the Operational Technology Division, which focuses on forensic computing, trains alongside the Cyber Division, which investigates computer intrusions.
Tracking activity on networks
For the cybersecurity research team, their exercises are more focused on tracking activity on networks, “rather than seizing devices.” In this way, they have to learn to trace the origin of an intrusion, identify how malware spreads, or follow the digital footprints of certain people.
However, all this is done in an isolated environment where agents can make mistakes without risks. “The objective is not only to teach technical skills but also to prepare investigators for the moments when those skills must be applied under pressure, when communication, good judgment, and restraint are as important as expertise,” emphasizes the FBI.
Additionally, the scenarios are constantly updated to reflect emerging cybersecurity threats, from connected devices to new forms of malicious activities, so that students are as prepared as possible.
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