Cyber Fire is an advanced cybersecurity program hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that empowers professionals to tackle the critical challenges posed by cyber threats to national security, energy infrastructure, and vital systems. Through collaborative training and immersive exercises, Cyber Fire builds resilience across DOE and its ecosystem, ensuring the safety and reliability of vital operations.

What We Do

Cyber Fire focuses on hands-on training, team-based problem-solving, and mentorship-driven learning opportunities for cybersecurity professionals. Using real-world scenarios, interactive exercises, and cutting-edge techniques, we prepare participants to effectively detect, analyze, and respond to cyber incidents that impact critical systems.

Key areas of focus include:

• Identifying vulnerabilities in complex systems
• Mitigating cyber risks for industrial control systems (ICS) and SCADA
• Collaborating on incident response strategies
• Enhancing cyber forensic skills and data analysis techniques

Participants gain actionable expertise and leave better equipped to strengthen the cybersecurity posture of their organizations and improve coordination across the DOE network.

Why Cyber Fire?

In today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape, protecting U.S. energy infrastructure and critical systems is more important than ever. Cyber Fire is uniquely designed to:

• Provide meaningful, hands-on training tailored to the challenges of DOE environments.
• Promote collaboration in solving complex cybersecurity issues.
• Improve resilience and readiness in addressing emerging cyber risks.

Cyber Fire events serve as a vital capacity-building initiative for defending against cyber disruptions that could jeopardize the security, safety, and continuity of critical national operations.

Who We Serve

Cyber Fire serves professionals across the DOE, national laboratories, energy utilities, federal agencies, and other entities responsible for protecting infrastructure vital to the nation’s security and energy resilience. By enhancing expertise and fostering collaboration, the program helps ensure that the collective cybersecurity workforce is prepared to face the growing challenges of tomorrow.

History

Cyber Fire began with Sandia’s TRACER FIRE exercise in 2009, and has been running continuously ever since. The Cyber Fire name was adopted in 2016, to distinguish this fork from Sandia’s original TRACER FIRE event.

Cyber Fire has grown to include over half of the DOE National Laboratories on staff; and now includes a summer school, a simulated APT incident response, and contest events.