Tech firms including Dropbox, Google and the Open Technology Fund have formed Simply Secure to develop simple and user friendly open source security tools.
The firms say that despite the availability of technically effective security tools, their complex nature often don’t allow normal consumers to operate them, leading to security breaches.
Simply Secure director Sara Sinclair Brody said: "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.
In a bid to overcome this concern, the organisation will work together with the open source community to create user friendly security tools that enable them choosing better security without sacrificing usability.
Dropbox security engineer Devdatta Akhawe said: "Giving users a delightful experience while safeguarding their data is a core value at Dropbox. "We are excited to join with Simply Secure to help bring secure, usable tools and applications to the world."
Google open source research lead Meredith Whittaker said: "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."
