My first reminder of the blog: how to unban an IP that Fail2Ban wrongly banned. This happens to me a lot right now and I never remember the exact command line to reauthorize an IP.
[Paranoid Mode: ON] I think we all agree that the database is the most sensitive element of a site. Installing phpMyAdmin on a server is like exposing this data to everyone, well everyone who knows how to hack phpMyAdmin. Do you have to do without phpMyAdmin? No, it's far too practical, but a minimum of safety must be put in place to sleep soundly.