Crate is a cybersecurity research and training facility where realistic IT environments are built at scale, completely isolated from the outside world. Here, we can create complete digital organizations with servers, clients, networks, external services and users – including our own simulated internet – and make them operate just as they would in the real world.

This makes Crate a unique platform for training cyber defence, testing new security solutions and conducting groundbreaking cybersecurity research.

One of Europe’s Largest and Most Experienced Cyber Facilities

Crate’s main facility in Linköping is one of the largest and oldest facilities of its kind in Europe. This is where the platform’s capabilities and research methods are developed, while new Crate facilities are being established across Sweden to meet specific needs and mission requirements.

The facility comprises more than 600 servers and can simulate IT environments containing over 10,000 computers. The platform is also equipped with powerful AI resources for advanced analysis and automation. Behind the system is proprietary software representing more than 100 person-years of development, much of which has been created through research projects that push the boundaries of what is possible in cyber range technology.

Realism at Scale

Crate is designed to replicate real-world organizations. Environments can include different operating systems, business applications, industrial components, user behaviours and external integrations. Simulated users work within the systems, generate traffic and introduce the complexity required to ensure that exercises and research produce meaningful results.

Extreme Automation

One of Crate’s greatest strengths is its advanced automation. Complex IT environments containing hundreds of machines can be built, configured and made fully operational in just a few hours. Advanced attacks can be conducted manually, according to predefined scenarios or in entirely unpredictable ways by a proprietary AI antagonist.

All activity can be captured separately for detailed analysis, making it possible to understand exactly what happened during an exercise or research experiment. The same scenario can be run in parallel across multiple environments, monitored from a central exercise control function, and then reset and repeated hundreds of times with minimal manual effort.

Flexible, Scalable and Secure

Crate can be accessed remotely and connected to external systems when required. The platform’s architecture is designed to be flexible and adaptable to new requirements and future use cases. For organizations with specific security requirements, purpose-built Crate instances can be accredited for operations involving classified information.

For Research, Training and Innovation

With Crate, organizations can:

• Train cyber defence in realistic environments.
• Conduct large-scale cyber exercises with limited resources.
• Validate products, systems and architectures.
• Study the effects of attacks and defensive measures.
• Conduct reproducible research at scale.
• Explore new AI-based approaches to cyber defence.

Crate is more than just a test environment – it is a research infrastructure where the future of cybersecurity is developed, evaluated and practised under controlled conditions.