A new publication from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides a basic model aimed at helping researchers better understand the internet of things (IoT) and its security challenges.

Examples of IoT systems include a smart electric grid, a home controlled by sensors, self-driving cars, smart factories, and heart health monitors.

But what is the IoT? There are many ways to describe it. More than 20 professional and research groups have worked to characterize the IoT, but so far there’s not one universally accepted definition. Despite that, the International Data Corporation predicts the global market for IoT solutions to grow to $1.7 trillion by 2020. After studying the recent attempts to define the IoT, NIST computer scientist Jeff Voas determined that “there is no formal, analytic or even descriptive set of building blocks that govern the operation, trustworthiness, and life cycle of IoT components,” according to his introduction in the just-released NIST publication, “Networks of ‘Things.’”

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