If you do expose your SSH port, one option is to setup a firewall rule to allow your own public IP for connections to the SSH port and drop all the rest.
If you're using Digital Ocean, you can set a firewall rule via the droplet web interface, that's quick to do. Otherwise just a simple iptables does the trick.
If you're using Digital Ocean, you can set a firewall rule via the droplet web interface, that's quick to do. Otherwise just a simple iptables does the trick.
Edit: if you have a static public IP, of course