A protocol used to transfer files between systems over a network, particularly from a host (that is, server) to a remote computer (that is, client). Netscape as well as other browsers provide built-in FTP capabilities. FTP was one of the first widely used protocols on the Internet for sharing and distributing files. Before the massive distribution of Web servers, FTP servers were, in fact, the most widely used means of distributing public domain data. Because FTP was developed in the days when the Internet was still considered to be a safe space, only very weak security measures were implemented. Therefore, a number of security flaws have been discovered over the years. Security professionals consider FTP to be inherently insecure. The password to authenticate at an FTP server, for example, is transmitted in clear-text and can be collected off the network easily with any sniffing tool. More recently, security measures have been taken to improve the security of the protocol by running it on top of an encryption service, such as FTP over TLS and SFTP.

See Also: Host; Protocol; Server.