Inside the FBI’s Secret Replica Town Where Cyberattacks Are Simulated Against Realistic Infrastructure

To the untrained eye, it would seem like a typical small American town. It had its road systems, utility grid, communication network, and many of the technologies that subtly support everyday life. It didn’t, however, have residents, nor did it have schools or neighborhoods buzzing with life.

This community was established for a different reason.

The FBI created a simulated environment that was designed to mimic a real world cyber attack on critical infrastructure. The idea behind this test facility was simple, yet increasingly vital. They wanted to be able to understand what effect a sophisticated cyber-attack against a critical infrastructure systems could have before it actually happened.

The modern world relies on interconnected systems and technology. Electricity grids, water treatment plants, communications systems, transportation networks, and many others rely on digital networks to manage them efficiently, but they also provide an attractive target for cybercriminals, hostile nations, or any individual looking to cause havoc in society.

While many cyber security test beds focused on individual systems and networks, the FBI wanted to examine the systems from a different perspective and through simulated interaction. The goal here was to study how the attack would spread from system to system once the network was actually compromised and to also learn what affect a compromise on one system would have on other interconnected networks.

The testing facility allows the cybersecurity experts to see how different simulated cyber attacks will actually effect the real world systems from the convenience and safety of their facility. The FBI could now simulate and analyze ransomware attacks on city governments, communications disruption effect emergency services, or industrial control systems under cyber attack, among many others.

This facility will also serve as a unique training ground.

Law enforcement officials, cybersecurity professionals, infrastructure operators, and government agencies will be able to get a hands-on simulation of different crisis scenarios to see what would happen and learn how they would respond if and when such a thing actually happened to a real town or city.

This project is really an indication of the growing understanding that cybersecurity isn’t just about protecting computers anymore. It’s about protecting society from potentially catastrophic damages that can result from the destruction or disruption of these critical infrastructure systems. According to some experts, this critical infrastructure has already been identified as a major front in the global battle against cybercrime and as threats become more complex and widespread, they will surely increase in the future.

By recreating such a perfect testbed environment the FBI aims to be a few steps ahead of these increasingly complex and dangerous attacks and through each simulation of a cyber attack, they are able to uncover more about these vulnerabilities. What may look like just another small, quiet town is, in fact, much more than meets the eye.