The FBI opened a 22,000-square-foot simulated town on its Redstone Arsenal campus in Huntsville, Ala., that includes a fully wired mock hospital agents use to train for ransomware response and other cyber investigations.
The Kinetic Cyber Range, operated by the Bureau’s Operational Technology Division, opened in February 2025 and has trained more than 1,400 students, including FBI personnel and partners from other agencies. The facility also contains houses, hotel rooms, a power company, and a gas station, each equipped with functioning networks, servers, and connected devices.
In one training scenario, a simulated ransomware attack locks down the mock hospital network. Alarms sound and role players respond as if patient care is at risk, forcing trainees to manage both the technical breach and its operational consequences. “The systems that we have running in these facilities are just as real as the facade on the outside,” said Dave Beachboard, who manages the Kinetic Cyber Range, in a June 9 news release. “When they start diving into the network, they’re going to see Active Directory, email, firewalls — everything that’s typical of that venue.”
The facility arrives as healthcare remains the leading target for cybercrime among U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, with 460 ransomware attacks recorded in 2025 alone, according to FBI data.
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