Shutdown ssh brute-force password attacks

Whenever you opened ssh access, you know you are inviting ssh brute-force attacks. I am not allowing password authentication (only Public/private key authentication) so I am relatively safe by now, but these attacks are annoying. Is there any way (e.g. using Linux firewall rules), to automatically shutdown the attack connections?

If you will be logging in from predetermined locations, you could allow external access based on IP or subnet. Alternatively, if you get this attacks quite frequently, you could also use iptables' rate limiting rules which allow you to specify how often you allow connections of a particular type.

Alright, if you have a cisco router, then you can set what is called an access control list (ACL). They are very useful and effective.

Try this denyhosts.sourceforge.net/ or read this www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=05/09/15/1655234