12-18-2016, 11:42 AM
The original poster might have already found the solution though I'll just share what I know in case someone else faces a similar situation and is looking for a solution. I usually disable root user, create a user with my name probably, add it to SUDOers, change SSH port to any other random port, use a complicated password (if not a SSH key-based authentication) and install fail2ban. That's how I secure my VPS. If you haven't done any action to secure your VPS (even if you have no past bruteforce attacks) you should start securing your VPS.