The SSH daemon allows for secure remote shell login. It was installed during the initial installation, we selected to have it run right after boot.

We want to disable remote root login though, as crackers are permanently trying to hack into exposed servers, using the all-powerful root account as the primary target.

So we need to log in at the console as root, cd /etc/ssh, vi sshd_config, search for the line “#PermitRootLogin no” and uncomment that - and of course save the file.

To restart the server:

service sshd restart