Critical Alert
IP 45.81.23.49 is a critical-risk address operating from the Netherlands (AS49870, Alsycon B.V.) that has been repeatedly linked to SSH brute-force attacks, accumulating 1,102 total abuse reports from automated honeypot sensors between September 2025 and February 2026.
The threat intelligence surrounding this IP presents a clear pattern of sustained malicious activity concentrated on the SSH protocol. The 1,102 total reports represent one of the higher volume indicators in recent community feeds, with the most recent 20 reports all categorising the activity specifically as SSH attacks. These detections originate exclusively from automated honeypot sensors, meaning the hostile traffic is being recorded against exposed dummy systems designed to attract and document unauthorized access attempts. The six-month reporting window from September 2025 through February 2026 demonstrates persistent behaviour rather than a transient probe, and the Netherlands-based origination through Alsycon B.V.'s network infrastructure places this actor within a commercial hosting environment commonly associated with threat actors seeking flexible, disposable infrastructure.
SSH brute-force attacks represent a direct pathway to server compromise through systematic password guessing against exposed SSH daemons. An attacker operating from IP 45.81.23.49 is attempting to authenticate to target systems by cycling through common or leaked credential combinations, exploiting the fact that many administrators still rely on password-based authentication rather than cryptographic key pairs. When successful, these attacks grant attackers a foothold on servers, enabling data exfiltration, lateral movement through internal networks, or deployment of secondary payloads such as cryptominers or ransomware. The volume of 1,102 reports indicates an aggressive, automated campaign likely part of a broader botnet or credential-stuffing operation rather than manual targeting.
Site operators running publicly accessible SSH services should treat any connection attempts from this IP as definitively hostile. Implementing key-based authentication exclusively, moving SSH from the default port 22, and configuring tools such as fail2ban to automatically block repeated authentication failures will neutralise the threat. Rate-limiting incoming connections on port 22 and disabling root login over SSH provide additional hardening layers. Continuous monitoring of authentication logs and implementing network-level blocking based on the current abuse reports will ensure this IP cannot successfully compromise exposed services.