Hold your horses, I'll get to you next.
I would highly consider putting your HA behind a cloudflare tunnel if possible.
Set up client certs so you can access it on your phone when away from home
That's normal if you're not exposing it to the Internet I suppose. Probably not a lot of bots out there looking for it, but the better question is WHY you have it exposed to the internet.
I have mine exposed to the Internet so I can control things and get notifications when I'm away. But I pay HA to use their cloud service.
You'd be better off just setting up a simple VPN, Tailscale, or Zerotier for this.
I'd rather support nabu casa.
homeassistant
Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first.
Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts.
Home Assistant can be self-installed on ProxMox, Raspberry Pi, or even purchased pre-installed: Home Assistant: Installation
Discussion of Home-Assistant adjacent topics is absolutely fine, within reason.
If you're not sure, DM @GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk