Changing the port to something other than the default (even to something obvious like 22222) will get rid of all the log spam. You could also use something like fail2ban, but changing the port is much simpler.
oh yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to make it out like I was complaining. I log all blocked traffic, so I get data related to ports other than just SSH. I was more lamenting that people even want to attack my VPS, as there's really nothing interesting about it.
It's not people, though. It's bots! While changing the ssh port adds a comically small amount of security (if any), it isolates you from 99.99% of automated attacks and keeps those logs clean, so I'd recommend it for everyone.
Just remember that the port argument to `scp` is -P and not -p like it is for `ssh`. :p
Yeah, I whitelist IPs, and just drop all other packets, so I'm not really worried, but thanks for the advice, it's always good to get other peoples opinions on best practices.