Is there any point to running fail2ban to protect your SSH connection if you connect from a static IP?
As far as I can see having fail2ban running means that you effectively open up port 22 to hackers as it puts an entry in your iptables to allow port 22 connections from any IP. It may then ban them according to your jail settings but would it not be safer to have the following iptables entries instead?
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
1 ACCEPT tcp -- {**mystaticIP**} 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:22
2 REJECT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
**OR** maybe this option, with fail2ban, is safer?
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
1 fail2ban-SSH tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:22
...
Chain fail2ban-SSH (1 references)
1 REJECT all -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
with jail.local setting ignoreip = 127.0.0.1/8 {mystaticIP}