Ideally you should not have to circumvent the default PermitRootLogin settings; it is there for a reason. And no need to give out root passwords, if you are so security conscious.
Our polo-necked messiah has given us iPhones that can even run an SSH client so how sort-of pointless to talk about "ssh buddies" and showing iPhone screenshots in the very same article? Since you were getting IDS alarms on your iPhone anyway, why didn't you SSH in and shutdown the machine yourself?
And on the root login bit: you would only need a sort-of dummy account for you logging in or for your "ssh buddy", if you love that idea. And all they need to be able to run is "sudo shutdown".
I was waiting for the article to mention the fact that you can SSH from any capable smart phone. Then he/others are saying using SMS to send commands from his phone is a good idea. [facepalm]
Get a mobile ssh client, set it and your sshd up with RSA keys, setup port forwarding on your home router on a non-standard port, disable Root login and move along.
You may have a cell signal but no (or prohibitively expensive, in the case of traveling abroad) data access.
Then again, if one of my servers was being hacked, I think I'd be ok spending $50 in data roaming to shut it down.
Although, there's the case of a really slow data. On T-Mobile I'll occasionally get an EDGE signal too useless to even establish an ssh session, let alone be interactive enough to use ssh. A text message can often be much more reliable and easy to use. Not sure about the security implications related to SMS remote control, though.
Our polo-necked messiah has given us iPhones that can even run an SSH client so how sort-of pointless to talk about "ssh buddies" and showing iPhone screenshots in the very same article? Since you were getting IDS alarms on your iPhone anyway, why didn't you SSH in and shutdown the machine yourself?
And on the root login bit: you would only need a sort-of dummy account for you logging in or for your "ssh buddy", if you love that idea. And all they need to be able to run is "sudo shutdown".