# What is a Cyber Range?

> A cyber range is an isolated or controlled environment that represents networks, systems, applications, security tools, users, and attack activity for hands-on cybersecurity learning, exercises, research, or testing.

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## Content

A range may use virtual infrastructure, physical equipment, simulations, emulated services, or a hybrid of these approaches.

Ranges allow participants to practice actions that would be unsafe, disruptive, unlawful, or impractical in a production environment. They can support individual skills, team exercises, incident-response rehearsals, product evaluation, and procedure validation. Useful results depend on clear objectives and on sufficient fidelity in the systems, data, identities, traffic, timing, and operational constraints that matter to the scenario.

### Key points

- **Training uses:** Guided labs, role-based practice, capture-the-flag challenges, and performance assessment.
- **Exercise uses:** Red-versus-blue scenarios, incident coordination, communications, forensics, recovery, and decision-making.
- **Platform needs:** Isolation, orchestration, repeatable deployment, realistic activity, monitoring, scoring or observation, reset, and evidence collection.
- **Selection questions:** Match fidelity, scale, latency, hardware requirements, accessibility, customization, instructor support, and cost to the intended outcome.
- **Important limitation:** Performance in a range does not automatically predict production performance. Simplified dependencies, artificial traffic, known scenarios, and unsafe connectivity can distort results or create risk.

### Related terms

[Red team](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/red-team/>) · [Purple team](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/purple-team/>) · [Tabletop exercise](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/tabletop-exercise/>) · [Security awareness training](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/security-awareness-training/>) · [Adversary emulation](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/adversary-emulation/>)

### Sources

[NIST glossary: Cyber Range](https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/cyber_range) · [NIST NICE: The Cyber Range—A Guide](https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/2023/09/29/The%20Cyber%20Range_A%20Guide.pdf)

## Attribution and scope

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