

The certificate is considered trusted if either the certificate was signed by a known certificate authority (CA) or if the certificate was self-signed by your partner and you have a copy of their public certificate in your trusted key store. When connecting to a trading partner's FTPS server, your FTPS client will first check if the server's certificate is trusted. You can choose to encrypt both connections or only the data channel.įTPS authenticates your connection using a user ID and password, a certificate, or both. Like FTP, FTPS uses two connections: a command channel and a data channel. In response, Netscape created the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL, now known as TLS) protocol to protect communications over a network. The History of FTPS: Expanding on FTP's SuccessesĬoncern about internet security grew during the 1990s. FTPS, we highly recommend you avoid the basic FTP protocol and choose a more secure option.Įxplore the differences between SFTP and FTPS, learn how they're implemented and authenticated, and discover which protocol we recommend using. When it comes to selecting a transfer method between FTP vs. Unfortunately, despite escalating security risks and the high cost of non-compliance, FTP is actually growing in popularity. With FTP, both channels are unencrypted, leaving any data sent over these channels vulnerable to being intercepted and read.Įven if a man-in-the-middle attack is a risk that you are personally willing to take, industry requirements such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, and others require data transfers to be encrypted. Back then, it was usually assumed that internet activity was not malicious, so FTP wasn’t created as a secure file transfer protocol to deal with the kind of cybersecurity threats we now see in the news every day.įTP exchanges data using two separate channels known as the command channel and data channel. Secure file transfer protocols have additional features like detailed audit logs to help you comply with industry regulations, is flexible if you exchange data with trading partners that have different requirements, and can automate file encryption, workflows, and other data transfer processes.įTP is a popular file transfer method that has been around longer than the world wide web-and it hasn’t changed much since it’s invention. Our MFT software, GoAnywhere MFT, runs on multiple platforms, including Microsoft Azure (for organizations using the cloud), Microsoft Windows, and Linux. For an enterprise, it is ideal to have a managed file transfer (MFT) solution that can manage, monitor, and automate file transfers using a variety of protocols, including FTPS and SFTP. We recommend SFTP thanks to its better usability with firewalls. Know Your Terms: GoAnywhere Glossary While Both Protocols Have their Benefits, We Recommend SFTP


You and your trading partners will therefore have to open a range of ports in your firewalls to allow for FTPS connections, which can be a security risk for your network. However, every time a file transfer request or directory listing request is made, another port number needs to be opened for the data channel. The first port for the command channel is used for authentication and passing commands. SFTP needs only a single port number for all SFTP communications, making it easy to secure.įTPS uses multiple port numbers. One major difference between FTPS and SFTP is how they use ports. Why Should You Choose One Over the Other? SFTP vs. Use this article as an introduction to the differences between two mainstream secure FTP protocols, SFTP and FTPS, and which is the best choice to protect your file transfers.īoth FTPS and SFTP offer strong protection through authentication options that FTP can’t provide.

With so many options for transferring files, it can be confusing to answer the most important question: what is the best way to secure your company’s data during transfer?
