Term: FTP [File Transfer Protocol]

FTP is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol. It is perhaps one of the oldest protocols for transferring data files between computers on the internet.

While FTP has many advantages – ubiquity being one – it has one major disadvantage: FTP is not encrypted. This means that anyone watching the data stream can see the files being transferred, or, perhaps more disturbingly, the log in and password information for connecting to the remote site.

As a result, SFTP is often preferred for security reasons when available.