Maximum Danger
IP 198.235.24.206 is a critical-risk address operating from Google Cloud Platform infrastructure (AS396982) that has generated 210 abuse reports through automated honeypot sensors since August 2025, with the most recent activity logged in June 2026. The IP has earned a maximum threat level score of 10/10, driven predominantly by confirmed hacking activity including active SSH session establishment attempts on expected service ports.
The volume and consistency of reports — all 20 most recent threat categorizations citing hacking — combined with an 82% confidence score, indicate sustained and deliberate hostile reconnaissance rather than incidental scanning. The attack-pattern evidence, including Suricata signature detection of SSH sessions in progress, confirms that this address is not merely probing but actively engaging with target services. Operating from United States-based cloud infrastructure through AS396982 means this activity likely originates from compromised cloud assets or bulletproof hosting commonly exploited for anonymity by threat actors.
Hacking activity of this profile poses concrete risks to any exposed SSH service, potentially leading to unauthorized system access, credential harvesting, lateral movement within networks, or deployment of persistent backdoors. The Suricata alert specifically flags that an SSH handshake was completed rather than merely attempted, suggesting the attacker may have succeeded in reaching an authentication prompt or establishing a session on an exposed daemon. Without adequate controls, a single successful compromise can cascade into full infrastructure takeover.
Site operators should immediately block 198.235.24.206 at the firewall or network perimeter, and implement automated dynamic blocking using tools such as fail2ban to respond to repeated authentication failures. SSH services should enforce key-based authentication exclusively, disable password-based login entirely, and restrict access to known source IPs where feasible. Continuous monitoring of authentication logs for attempts originating from this address and similar patterns from adjacent network ranges is strongly advised.
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