Online storage platform Dropbox, Google, & the Open Technology Fund today have launched Simply Secure, a new organization focused on making open source security tools simpler & easier for people to use.

The aim is to use Simply Secure to bring some of the best minds in security, user interaction research & design together to dedicate resources & brainpower to solving this problem. Although consumer-facing security tools exist & are technically effective, they often have low adoption rates because they’re inconvenient or too confusing for the average person to operate. Even well-known features like two-factor authentication, offered by many Online services, are not widely used.

Led by Director Sara Sinclair Brody, the organization will work with the open source community to develop tools that make it easy for people without advanced technical knowledge to choose better security without sacrificing usability.

“Simply Secure represents an exciting opportunity to bring together diverse groups in pursuit of an important goal: making security and privacy tools more user-friendly. This transparent, community-focused approach is new, and represents a compelling adaptation of the open-source model to interaction design. Usable security has been a passion of mine for the past ten years, and I’m thrilled to be leading such a wide-ranging and well-supported initiative.” Sara Sinclair Brody, Director of Simply Secure

“If technology is secure but impossible to use, is it really secure? It’s a challenge to provide proven, open source tools to the public in ways that meet their high expectations and modern use cases. With its clear mission, an exceptional board, and a community-focused approach, we believe Simply Secure can bring us much closer to a world in which ubiquitous security is the norm.” Meredith Whittaker, Open Source Research Lead, Google

In the coming months, Simply Secure will be collaborating with others on:

• Researching & developing usability & security auditing practices. How do we measure the two in a single assessment?
• Bringing usable-security researchers from major institutes in contact with secure-software developers, & building an academic practice focused on practical implementation.
• Sponsoring usability studies for major secure-communications tools, & working with designers & developers to act on their findings.
• Convening usability researchers & software developers to identify big problems, & crafting collaborative ideas for solving them.

Image Credit: Simply Secure

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