There is zero security risk with plain text authentication sent over your own network. If someone has access to your network to read it you are already hosed. Someone having access to a neighboring network is irrelevant.
First I want to point out a common misconception. Someone hacking into your system is likely NOT some kid, a Chinese army or mafia group, all wearing hoodies and sunglasses in a dark warehouse somewhere. They're likely computer professionals who band together to do other things on the side to make money. Very educated, very clean, upstanding to most people. The hacking of the camera isn't necessarily to see what you're doing but it can give a group "another ant in the army" that they can command to attack a website with hundreds of thousands of false requests, essentially crashing someone else (a city, a competitor company, someone they're extorting money from). these cameras are fraught with low security and maintenance. If you want a drone that you can add to your army to sic onto something, the IOT (Internet of Things) devices are great, mindless, unsecure bots to use.
