In my last blog, I described the benefits of being able to choose between using secure email and secure file transfer to send files between sender and recipient. This blog picks up with the choice of various secure file transfer protocols.
The classic way to transfer files directly from the folder of a sending system to the folder of a receiving system is to use FTP, or “File Transfer Protocol”. FTP is the name of a formal file transfer standard and not just an acronym that describes a technological capability. This protocol has been around in some form since the 1970s. While it accomplishes all the basic requirements of file transfer, it does not allow for files to be sent securely and privately. Over time, two commonly used protocols were developed to support secure file transfer: FTPS and SFTP.
FTPS is a secure extension of the original FTP protocol. This means that the structure and workflow of sending information back and forth are the same in FTP and FTPS, but that security and privacy are added through the use of another common data stream known as SSL. This is the same SSL that is used in securing web browser transactions when typing in https:// at the beginning of a URL. When used with classic File Transfer Protocol, FTP/SSL, FTP/TLS, FTP over SSL, and FTP over TLS are all the same thing as FTPS.
The other common way to handle secure file transfer is to use SFTP. Even though it contains the same FTP letters found in FTP and its secure extension FTPS, SFTP is a completely different protocol in its structure and workflow of sending information back and forth between client and server. Additionally, SFTP almost always runs over an SSH data stream rather than an SSL data stream. In concept, the SFTP secure file transfer protocol could run over SSL, but is rarely implemented this way. It is so common for SFTP to be implemented over a SSH data stream that often people think SSH is both a requirement for SFTP as well as the only part of SFTP that makes it different from FTPS.
In my next blog, I will talk about the SSH data stream and why SFTP is so commonly implemented using it.
The post So What’s the Difference Between FTPS and SFTP? appeared first on DataMotion.
