Defining an environment

An environment is the sum of the interaction an object has with the world—whether it’s an application running on a network, with the network or the internet as its environment, a robot running an assembly line, with the building housing the assembly line as its environment, or a human working in an office with the real world as an environment is immaterial. An environment defines the surroundings in which an entity operates and therefore interacts with other entities. Each environment is unique but contains common elements that make it possible to secure the environment. An ML environment includes the following elements, which are used as the basis for discussion as the chapter progresses:

• Data of any type and from any source
• An application model
• Ancillary code, such as libraries
• Interfaces to third-party code such as services
• An Application Programming Interface (API)
• Third-party applications that interact directly...