Well, SSH server is secured with `(username, auth_token, sshd_port)` 3-tuple, where `auth_token` is a password, public key, OTP or whatever else it may be. By c

Well, SSH server is secured with `(username, auth_token, sshd_port)` 3-tuple, where `auth_token` is a password, public key, OTP or whatever else it may be. By changing the sshd port from default, one, indeed, would somehow increase security. People tend to change sshd port so they won't get port scanned. It should be compared to hiding one apartment's door. However, the real annoyance is that after some bot detects sshd it starts brute-force attacking it. Compare it to thief standing in front of your door and trying to pick a lock for a long time. There are tools like denyhosts[1] and fail2ban[2] to prevent such abuse - N failed attempts and unless you're from a trusted network - you're banned. The open question is whenever you gain something valuable, while giving up your convenience (you'll have to specify `-p` option or register every host in `$HOME/.ssh/config`)? Most security rightfully relies on `auth_token`, so first thing to do is to ensure it's strong enough. The rest of changes are relatively insignificant (just compare 4096 bits of your private key to 16 bits of port number). I believe people care about their sshd port only because it's noisy in `auth.log` when they're attacked.