Executive Summary: This article details how to minimize hack attempts on open facing ports on a *nix machine, by reading the attackers IP addresses from a log file, and adding the address to hosts.deny Chances are pretty good if you've got a port open to the internet you're seeing unwanted traffic on it. If you've got a service such as telnet or FTP or POP that transmits passwords unencrypted, you're significantly at risk for a breach from a packet being intercepted, but even if you're using a secure protocol such as SSH, you're vulnerable to a brute force attempt to break into your site. As an example, here is a sample of a log file showing a break-in attempt on one of my servers: Oct 8 13:54:18 chapelle sshd(pam_unix)[4554]: authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=59.13.157.12 Oct 8 13:54:22 chapelle sshd(pam_unix)[4557]: authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=59.13.157.12 Oct 8 13:54:27 chapelle ssh...