Viewing video footage from Arlo Pro 4 stored on local storage with no VPN or port forwarding set up

[rlc07]

I use Google Wifi (Google Fiber) at home and I have set up local storage (Smart Hub VMB4540) to save video footage from my Arlo Pro 4, and I have had no problem viewing the locally saved videos on the Arlo App when I am at home. I need to find a way to access and view the locally stored videos when I travel or am outside of my area. From my research, I can't set up VPN because mesh points for Google Wifi do not support this and I am a bit leery of setting up port-forwarding due to security risks. Does anyone have a similar setup and can offer some suggestions? Thanks in advance. 

[StephenB]

I think port forwarding is the most practical path.

It is possible to add a second router with a VPN to your network (or set up a VPN server on an always-on PC).  But both of those would most likely end up with some port forwarding in the mesh router anyway.

[rlc07]

@StephenB - Thanks, but what about security risks I hear/read about on port forwarding? Any suggestions or references I can refer to make sure I take the necessary steps to keep the footage on the SmartHub safe? 

[StephenB]

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@rlc07 wrote:

@StephenB - Thanks, but what about security risks I hear/read about on port forwarding? Any suggestions or references I can refer to make sure I take the necessary steps to keep the footage on the SmartHub safe? 

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FWIW, the larger security threat is that someone (or something) will gain access to your entire home network.  Personally I'd be more concerned about stolen financial records, credit card info, passwords, etc. than my surveillance videos.  

When you are using port forwarding, then you are depending on the Arlo firmware in the base for security.  That is, that the base won't accept unauthenticated and unencrypted connection requests, and that there are no holes that a malicious attack can exploit.  You should reserve the IP address of the base in the your router, as you want to make sure the ports are always forwarded to the base (even if you reboot the base or the network).  Other than that, there is nothing to do.

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if you were to use a VPN (which is what I do), then you are depending on the VPN security instead. Penetrating that will give full access to your home network without needing to hack the Arlo base.  If for some reason the base is the target, they'd of course need to defeat both the VPN security and the Arlo security.   But I think it's unlikely that the goal of the attack is just to get the smarthub videos.

Either way, you are also depending on your router firewall security (among other things).