National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security
The Problem
The DHS required Operations & Maintenance (O&M) support, information aggregation, and enhancement of NICCS’ public website, including the improvement of site content, identification of information resources and gaps, and development of training manuals.
The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for securing all areas of our nation’s physical and cyber security. The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies (NICCS) is an online resource for cybersecurity career, education, and training information to provide the tools to ensure citizens have in-demand cybersecurity skills. The NICCS portal aligns with Objective 4.2 of the DHS’ strategic plan to promote cybersecurity knowledge and innovation, and by ensuring it’s continued functionality and operation, the DHS can bolster the US’s cybersecurity acumen.
The Solution
We first improved existing site content, updating policies, and proofreading, editing, modifying, and/or adapting existing content to comply with site publication rules. Then, we created dynamic content to enhance accessibility, incorporated feedback loops to evaluate quality, and validated Section 508 compliance.
The Impact
The DHS’s NICCS portal saw considerable improvements in site content, speed, and accessibility with development frameworks in place to ensure accelerated release schedule, satisfy milestone driven lifecycles, and produce quality releases. These enhancements allowed the DHS to further its mission to spread cybersecurity education to US citizens.
We performed O&M support during the whole lifecycle, ensuring software updates and upgrades were installed and providing multi-tiered help desk as well as certification and accreditation support. Actions for corrective and preventative maintenance were recommended to proactively identify issues before they could impact users.
To analyze website accessibility and visibility, a model of visual attention was created to determine what objects and locations drew user attention. This allowed us to design interfaces that ensured user attention was drawn to task critical elements. Mobile interfaces were also considered. Our team validated that the website could support 10,000 concurrent mobile and tablet users and leveraged Modernizr to ensure accessibility with mobile operating systems.
In-person training content was developed to include visuals of what users would see on the new website and designed to accommodate individual use cases. Test accounts allowed trainees to safely investigate the new website and apply lessons learned from the instructional content before interacting with the live environment.