Any time that you configure your computer to allow logins from the network you are leaving yourself '''vulnerable to potential unauthorized access''' by so called "penetration testers or even hackers". Running the sshd service is a fairly common practice but '''care must be taken to make things more difficult for those hackers individuals that attempt to use "'''brute force" attacks ''' to gain access to your system. Hackers use their knowledge of your system and many can use '''password guesses guessing programs''' help to gain access'''. They know which port is likely open to attack (TCP:22), the administrative account name (root), all they need to do is to "guess" the password.<br><br> Making your root password (and all other accounts!) both quite complex but easy to remember is not hard.

The Linux system administrator can also '''configure the SSH server ''' in order to make the SSH server more secure'''less vulnerable to attacks. Examples include not permitting root login, and change changing the default port number for the sshservice.