POSE: Phase I: Center for Formal and Human-Centered Security Verification in Internet of Things (IoT) Standards and Standardization

This Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) project centers on the development of a self-sustaining open-source ecosystem (OSE) for security and privacy assurance in Internet of Things (IoT) standards and their implementations. Modern IoT systems are integral to daily life, supporting safety, health, energy, and convenience across residential, commercial, and infrastructure settings. However, inconsistent designs and development practices across IoT devices have led to significant gaps in security and compliance. This project seeks to address these challenges by creating shared tools and infrastructure for continuous security verification—making it easier for developers to build secure-by-design devices and comply with emerging standards. The resulting OSE will promote trust in connected technologies, reduce risks for consumers, and contribute to safer, more reliable systems. It will also support hands-on educational opportunities that prepare the next generation of security and software engineers with practical skills in verification, threat modeling, and secure software design and development. Consumers, developers, educators, and researchers will benefit from the ecosystem’s collaborative and transparent approach, which aims to improve technological understanding and long-term resilience in connected environments. This POSE project establishes the Formal and Human-Centered Security Verification in IoT Standards (FHS-IoT), a non-profit organization dedicated to providing formally verified security guarantees for IoT standards and to improving compliance assurance for consumer IoT products. The FHS-IoT will develop a Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Deployment (CI/CD) infrastructure to support formal and human-centered verification tools and transition to an open-source ecosystem. This project focuses on three areas: 1) ecosystem justification and user engagement; 2) establishment of FHS-IoT governance models; and 3) content developer engagement and community building. The anticipated outcomes include a metric-based justification for the FHS-IoT OSE, creation of an open-source CI/CD pipeline for continuous security verification of IoT standards and standardization implementations, and the formation of a user and contributor community with resources and onboarding instructions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.