Ask HN: What is the most secure way of baby monitoring?

[erkanerol]

We are expecting a baby and we want to buy a camera to monitor the baby. I want to buy an offline one for domestic use but my wife wants to buy an IP camera so that we can watch even when we are out of home. I don't trust the companies like Xiaomi and services.

What is the most secure way of monitoring babies? Is there a way to ensure e2e encryption?

[reify]

Why would you ever be out of your home and leave your baby unattended?

So you view IT, IT meaning baby, on a monitor, while you are at the restaurant.

What is the most secure way of monitoring babies?

Stay at home and look after it!!

I cannot for the life of me ever understand why you would not have your baby as close as possible.

Until I had children I thought I was a heavy sleeper. That is until my parental awareness took over. I did not need any CCTV or monitoring system. I naturally heard my babies every sounds.

Those sounds that all babies make before they start to cry, because they are hungry or want some love.

Great bonding experience, I really do not know how anyone would bond with a child via CCTV and monitoring system.

What on earth did we all do before 1989 when the internet went live.

[nextts]

Monitor is more for daytime. You want them in a quiet room to sleep while you get stuff done elsewhere. Being with the baby 24/7 is a beautiful idea but not always practical. Of course, never leave the house with baby or young child at home.

RF baby monitors surely existed before 1989. But yeah at some point we didn't have modern stuff. We survived without paper, sneakers, etc.

[sejje]

Babysitter my guy

[adregan]

If you’re out of the house with a babysitter, it’s more than likely to be a date night. Take the night off and enjoy your partner’s company. Don’t watch the monitor; let the babysitter take care of that (you’re paying for it). IMHO, of course.

[LinuxBender]

This may be too complex of a setup but if that were my task I would install one of the open source NVM's like ZoneMinder [1][2], get a few cameras and use port forwarding to HAProxy with basic authentication to keep bots off the ZoneMinder interface in the event of vulnerabilities. This is only useful if you are not behind CG-NAT otherwise a VPN would have to be established from the home to a VM somewhere and then use that VM as the entry-point. Your extended family members could also have a browser open watching what is going on in your home.

That ZoneMinder or other open source NVM would double as home security so you could also watch all the doors, windows, yards, driveway, garage, etc... Each NVM will have a webpage that lists the compatible cameras.

I assume you mean to watch the baby while a babysitter is there and the baby is not truly alone. There are also some NannyCam devices that hide the camera so you can also keep an eye on what the babysitter is doing with the baby in multiple rooms.

None of this addresses E2EE but the server would be hosted in your house and would be using TLS to your web browser to watch it.

[1] - https://zoneminder.com/

[2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us20t1gQPOE

[oceanhaiyang]

I have a Linux server running Frigate, but Agentdvr is also great, with my local IP cams connected. I bought four amcrest cams for 50$ a piece. I blocked them from leaving my home network via adguard. I have them running via wifi but via their Ethernet port would be even safer. Wife approves!

I’ve found frigate to be faster than Agentdvr but Agentdvr has more features.

[legitster]

What's the specific risk factor you are worried about? Are you worried about someone on the internet intercepting the feed of your baby sleeping? Or someone you know? What are you worried people are going to do with it?

There are a lot of secure camera options, but if you also don't trust the babysitter then you need more security than just E2E encryption.

[erkanerol]

The camera will be in the bedroom so I don't want to watched by an hacker who has an access to the servers of the service provider or the communication channel between the camera and the servers.

[Havoc]

You're probably better off going with what the wife wants & just isolating that device on the network.

Realistically the picture itself isn't the risk - babies aren't all that interesting - but a sketchy device on the network could be a beachhead of sorts.

[nextts]

Plus sign up with fake details.

[mvip]

I wouldn't trust any of the baby monitors. Even some of the "best" ones, like the Owlet are questionable. You might want to get one of the smaller Unifi cameras and use their Protect product to access it remotely. Cloud accessible but all stored locally.

[operatorius]

We are using capidi audio only monitoring system. Works over large distance. Were more than happy. Very reliable solution.

At times we thought that we need video too, but we managed without it just fine.

[PaulHoule]

I dunno if the CIA would trust them but I like Amcrest cameras

https://amcrest.com/

because they have a wide range of different price points and capabilities. Use these with software like

https://zoneminder.com/

which you could run on a cheap Linux box. For secure access use

https://tailscale.com/

[marconey]

Have a look a cameras with HomeKit Secure Video, if you are already in the Apple ecosystem

e2e encrypted and stored in your iCloud

[brudgers]

my wife wants

Cowboy up and do that.

Good luck and congratulations.