I wanted to buy IP cameras for my farm but had the same doubts you do.<p>So I bought many different models, all of which had dozens of random and utterly inappropriate services running along with a hideous web interface that made me shudder to think what lay inside.<p>In some cases I unpicked the firmware and saw it was even worse than imagined. They all got sold on eBay.<p>I claim there are no competent products in this category, though I would dearly love to be proved wrong with a counterexample. You could always use a RPi 0w plus camera module I suppose?
You could have added a bit more information, right?<p>Risk is usually defined as equal to chance times damage. So which damage could happen in your case? In other words, that security camera, what is it guarding?<p>In a general sense, if you plan to buy a camera, I think it would make sense to see how the vendor has reacted to security holes in the past.
Most of them are really bad.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4bhkKk5MCY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4bhkKk5MCY</a><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxGmQWrNQC4" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxGmQWrNQC4</a>
Burglars are in the business of coming into your place when you aren't there, taking your stuff, and hauling it away. Robbery/home invasion is a different business entirely, so burglars are always on the outlook for ways to know if you are home or not.<p>There also have been cases where the residents of a house were planning a crime or a cover-up for a crime and police have impounded security camera tapes as evidence. Richard Nixon proved that the person most likely to bug you is <i>you</i> and that is still true today.