Docs / Use Cases
Securing your Linux VPS in 10 minutes
By the NoctHost TeamUpdated June 27, 2026
SSH keys, firewall, fail2ban and automatic updates - the minimal hardening that prevents 99% of compromises and abuse reports.
Minute 0-3: SSH
Add your SSH key, then disable password authentication in sshd_config. Internet-wide scanners brute-force every fresh IP within hours of boot - keys make that attack surface zero. Keep root login key-only or create a sudo user, your call.
Minute 3-7: firewall and fail2ban
Our Ubuntu images boot with ufw already enabled and everything except SSH denied. Check it with "ufw status" before you debug anything else: if a service of yours is unreachable from outside, this is usually why, and it is why a fresh WireGuard on UDP 51820 looks blocked until you run "ufw allow 51820/udp".
Allow only the ports you actually serve (22, 80, 443 for a typical web box) and leave the rest denied. Install fail2ban with defaults - it bans IPs that hammer SSH and is the single highest-value package per minute of setup.
Minute 7-10: updates and the payoff
Enable unattended-upgrades for security patches. That's it. This boring checklist is also abuse prevention: most abuse reports against honest users come from compromised servers running open relays and proxies the owner never knew about. Ten minutes of hardening keeps your server yours.
Two deeper pieces follow from this: hardening SSH, which separates what matters from cargo cult, and security in layers on why fail2ban alone is not a plan. If you deploy with an SSH key in the first place, most of this page is already done.