My home server got hit by a brute force attack last Tuesday night

I woke up to a flood of emails from my monitoring tool showing over 10,000 failed SSH login attempts from a single IP in under an hour. The attack started around 2 AM and was trying common usernames like 'admin' and 'root'. I immediately blocked the IP at my firewall and changed my SSH port from the default 22 to a random high number. Has anyone else had success with other simple steps to stop these automated attacks cold?

2 comments

2 Comments

rivera.susan1mo ago

Honestly, my server security plan is basically just crossing my fingers.

graytorres1mo agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, I felt that way for ages! I finally set up a simple checklist I do every Monday, like checking for updates and making sure backups actually ran. It's not perfect, but it's way better than just hoping nothing goes wrong. Starting with one small habit made it feel less scary.