Hello, I’ve been looking around for a security system for the house I just purchased and wanted to know how risky wireless cameras are within the surety/alarm.com system. I would ideally get wired cameras, but I’m not exactly confident in my ability to install them and I would prefer to have cameras that work with the security system I choose as well (for uniformity and convenience sake).
I’m leaning towards the Surety Alarm + Surety View plan with Qolsys products, and I noticed that the descriptions mention encryption. Has there been research done to see how successful said encryption is in keeping hackers out of the system? How does that translate to the cameras and making sure someone can’t just hack into a wireless camera and alter the image I would see via my phone?
I noticed that the descriptions mention encryption. Has there been research done to see how successful said encryption is in keeping hackers out of the system?
Encryption here does not refer to the cameras. Alarm.com cameras do not pair with the panel, they are connected to your local network and communicate with Alarm.com via the internet.
Encryption here refers to the wireless RF sensors. Encrypting the data transfer between sensor and panel so that only the panel will be able to read the status of the sensor transmissions as it has the proper encryption key.
This is available on both Qolsys S-Line sensors as well as the DSC PowerG sensors (both compatible with the Qolsys IQ Panel 2+ w/ 319.5Mhz radio (QS9201-1208-840 )
Regarding camera security, cameras employ password protection to prevent access from outside the Alarm.com website
All video streams, as well as any video device commands, through Aalrm.com are sent over a VPN connection using AES-256 encryption.
This means that even if there is no security on the local Wi-Fi network (or if local Wi-Fi security is somehow compromised), cameras always connect over a high security path, using either the VPN (for relayed connections) or through HTTPS (for direct connections).