I'm also interested in this. Most of the Foscams (and rebadged Foscams and similar) I've seen and used were OK once you made sure the DDNS stuff was disabled. But these were mostly the previous gen as I've moved on from Foscam for the most part and I'm not familiar with their latest IP cameras.
The one thing I've noticed in general is that a lot of these IP cameras and NAS devices have DDNS or some other type of automatic forwarding on by default because users just want to plug something in and be able to access it from their iphone. The ability to do this with no more effort than pointing at a picture on a phone screen is apparently a selling point. The idea that you'd need to set up your own port forwarding or firewall rules is enough to turn a large percentage of potential buyers off to a product.
It's an unfortunate situation and it's the one good case I can see being made for the whole "cloud" dependent devices like Dropcam and friends. If the only thing leaving your LAN is an encrypted stream from the camera, at least in theory it's harder for casual snoopers and Shodan tinkerers to find something sensitive to look at.
Personally I prefer to have my IP cams connected to a separate LAN and record to a NAS hidden in a closet but in this day of "there's an app for that" and "plug and play" being the norm, it's interesting to see how companies sell networked devices to end users with the basic capabilities they want while not opening up home networks and sensitive data to anyone with the right search terms and the latest exploit.
The one thing I've noticed in general is that a lot of these IP cameras and NAS devices have DDNS or some other type of automatic forwarding on by default because users just want to plug something in and be able to access it from their iphone. The ability to do this with no more effort than pointing at a picture on a phone screen is apparently a selling point. The idea that you'd need to set up your own port forwarding or firewall rules is enough to turn a large percentage of potential buyers off to a product.
It's an unfortunate situation and it's the one good case I can see being made for the whole "cloud" dependent devices like Dropcam and friends. If the only thing leaving your LAN is an encrypted stream from the camera, at least in theory it's harder for casual snoopers and Shodan tinkerers to find something sensitive to look at.
Personally I prefer to have my IP cams connected to a separate LAN and record to a NAS hidden in a closet but in this day of "there's an app for that" and "plug and play" being the norm, it's interesting to see how companies sell networked devices to end users with the basic capabilities they want while not opening up home networks and sensitive data to anyone with the right search terms and the latest exploit.