Trusting Guarding Vision Account vs VPN Access Only

Hello,

I own several Nelly Security Hikvision cameras and a Hikvision NVR. I had a doorbell for a bit, but didn't like the need to use an account to connect to the camera/receive notifications.

For a bit, I used a login account with Guarding Vision. I stopped for fear of outside access to my cameras and to my LAN. Does this dynamically open ports to my network or simply forward the output to an intermediate server like ring or Simplisafe does. I am not sure I can trust the infrastructure setup behind the scenes.

I currently use open vpn to access my cameras and Hik Connect via iOS with a local IP address/port. As far as I can tell, this eliminates my ability to get intrusion notices from the NVR to my phone.

Wondering what others do here and if they are trusting of the Guarding Vision/IVMS platform.

Thanks,

Jerold

as long as i don't have any camera inside my house. I use whatever easy to view my house or business. If you need 100% safe from hacking. unplug the ethernet.

We have seens security breaches and data abuse oftentimes, so generally I would not trust 3rd parties. But actually they should not be able to open ports on your router as long as the router isn't configured to allow network devices to open ports on their own. OpenVPN is a very solid solution, maybe you could permanently have your iOS devices connected to it. This reroutes your whole traffic and eats up some megabytes, but your phone should receive the alerts. Or maybe you want to use email alerts if you're comfortable with it?

Interesting read: HAKVISION
Security hardening for Hikvision cameras
Security hardening for Hikvision NVRs