Google, Dropbox, and others launch open source security organization Simply Secure
New Initiative Simply Secure Aims to Make Security Tools Easier to Use — The dramatic revelations of large-scale government surveillance and deep penetration of the Internet by intelligence services …
Context & Ripple Effects
Simply Secure arrives as security usability is gaining urgency in the supplied record: Google has announced default encryption for the forthcoming Android L release, while an Android Browser flaw exposed cookies to theft for a large share of users. The initiative frames those concerns around making security tools practical to use, not merely available.
Coverage through both the Google and Dropbox blogs and several technology outlets presents the effort as a coordinated, cross-company open-source initiative rather than a feature announcement from either firm.
First-order effects
- Google, Dropbox and the other contributors gain a shared open-source vehicle for work aimed at making security tools easier for developers and users to adopt.
- Security-tool projects associated with Simply Secure receive visibility and backing from two large internet-service providers at launch.
Second-order effects
- Other open-source security maintainers face stronger pressure to treat usability as part of the security proposition, since difficult-to-use tools limit adoption even when their technical protections are sound.
- Google and Dropbox can position participation in a shared security effort as an ecosystem commitment, rather than limiting their security posture to proprietary product features.
Third-order effects
- If major service providers keep pooling support around usable open-source security tools, trust protection shifts toward shared ecosystem infrastructure maintained across company boundaries.
- The initiative points to ecosystem cyber defense in which adoption and interface design become as consequential as the underlying security code.
The trend: Security is moving from a vendor-specific product differentiator toward shared open-source infrastructure whose effectiveness depends on broad, usable adoption.