There’s also an “ESP8266 IoT SDK”, but from a quick glance at the code, this appears to be an SDK for the SOC on the module, not a simple way to connect the module to a microcontroller.

and 10% include the cryptography module. This article will focus on applying AES encryption and hash authorization functions to the MQTT protocol using the popular ESP8266 chip running NodeMCU ...

With an integrated microcontroller, 9 GPIO pins which can also be used for I2C or SPI, a serial UART, and built-in Wi-Fi, the ESP8266 has all of the elements required for a basic IoT device in an ...