- The FBI has built an entire town to help train its agents
- The town contains houses, businesses, and 200 hackable servers
- The idea is to give agents hands-on experience so they’re ready for the field
In the never-ending cat-and-mouse game between hackers and law enforcement, it helps the latter to know exactly what they’re up against. Usually, that might mean sitting in a classroom and getting a little hands-on time with a hacked server or laptop. But that’s not the case with the FBI’s Kinetic Cyber Range — no, this time the US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation went out and built a whole town to keep itself sharp.
The 22,000-square-foot Kinetic Cyber Range is built to be as lifelike as possible. Pay it a visit, and you’ll find 11 different facilities, including houses, a data center, a gaming arcade, a convenience store, a hotel, and much more. It’s designed to replicate the kind of town you might find anywhere in America, yet it’s all contained within an enormous hangar at the FBI’s training campus in Huntsville, Alabama.
All the businesses and tech in the ersatz community can be hacked, allowing students to put their skills to the test. Would-be cyber officers will encounter firewalls, email systems, file directories, and more, helping to prepare them for future digital investigations. That said, the Kinetic Cyber Range is designed to ensure that nothing nefarious spills out of its secure bounds and into the wider world.
In addition to the FBI, the facility can be used by NASA, the US Army, and local law enforcement agencies. The idea is to get people up to speed with the latest cyber techs — including drone software, vehicle forensics, and the internet of things.
Facing emerging threats
Given how incredibly lucrative the cybercrime industry is for hackers and fraudsters, it makes sense for law enforcement to seek as much real-world, hands-on time as possible. Theory alone will only provide so much…
