  Advances in synthetic biology and nanotechnology have contributed to the
design of tools that can be used to control, reuse, modify, and re-engineer
cells' structure, as well as enabling engineers to effectively use biological
cells as programmable substrates to realize Bio-Nano Things (biological
embedded computing devices). Bio-NanoThings are generally tiny, non-intrusive,
and concealable devices that can be used for in-vivo applications such as
intra-body sensing and actuation networks, where the use of artificial devices
can be detrimental. Such (nano-scale) devices can be used in various healthcare
settings such as continuous health monitoring, targeted drug delivery, and
nano-surgeries. These services can also be grouped to form a collaborative
network (i.e., nanonetwork), whose performance can potentially be improved when
connected to higher bandwidth external networks such as the Internet, say via
5G. However, to realize the IoBNT paradigm, it is also important to seamlessly
connect the biological environment with the technological landscape by having a
dynamic interface design to convert biochemical signals from the human body
into an equivalent electromagnetic signal (and vice versa). This,
unfortunately, risks the exposure of internal biological mechanisms to
cyber-based sensing and medical actuation, with potential security and privacy
implications. This paper comprehensively reviews bio-cyber interface for IoBNT
architecture, focusing on bio-cyber interfacing options for IoBNT like
biologically inspired bio-electronic devices, RFID enabled implantable chips,
and electronic tattoos. This study also identifies known and potential security
and privacy vulnerabilities and mitigation strategies for consideration in
future IoBNT designs and implementations.
