Final thoughts

Well, that's it. Fail2Ban will now monitor SSH intrusion attempts and will also search the logs for any systems that try to connect to blocked ports looking for an entry vector into your system. It will then block those systems automatically for whatever timeframe you specify and then remove that block. So you don't have to maintain IP block/allow lists manually anymore! In addition, repeat offenders can be dealt with more severely and still all automatically.

I hope this helps you in dealing with your server getting bombarded by irritating scanning-bots. As always, check out my blog at https://mytechiethoughts.com for more solutions like this and feel free to contribute comments, suggestions and improvements to this script! Don't hesitate to file an issue or make any requests and, if you're one of the many far more talented programmers/scripters than me, feel free to offer suggestions or tips :-)