The EU CyberNet is a project led by the Estonian Information System Authority (RIA) in a consortium with authorities from Germany and Luxembourg that aims to create a network of cyber experts and establish a community of stakeholders. The purpose of the expert network is to increase the European Union’s contribution to global cybersecurity and to ensure more effective use of exercises, training sessions, and investments outside Europe. The European Union External Cyber Capacity Building Network – or the EU CyberNet – launched in September 2019 for a duration of four years. By the end of the project, more than 500 experts and 200 international organizations must be involved in the network.
One critical part of the EU CyberNet’s online presence is a proper website with essentials such as introduction, activities, events and other benefits experts and stakeholders receive when joining the network. During this project, our task was to design and develop the EU CyberNet’s website while making sure it complies with RIA’s high standards of cybersecurity.
Process
UX/UI phase began with research – we got to know our audience. Together with RIA, we dived in and sought answers to these questions: To whom do we design this site? What kind of information does the target group search for? What do they want to know before joining the network?
Our vision was to build a dynamic site that is easy to administer and scale in time. We crafted 20 art-directed sections administrators can choose from to create unique templates based on content needs. Since we had to follow RIA’s rigorous requirements for security, we basically built a website that is hosted on two servers. To the outside world, the website is a static mirror of a dynamic site created by administrators in the internal network. In this way, there is no possibility to abuse potential security holes its Content Management System might have. This solution also passed penetration testing with flying colors.
Our partners’ feedback on the design of the website has been 110% positive. Everything is praised, starting with a Nordic clean design and ending with how everything is natural, easy to use and intuitive for the user.
