Despite stricter compliance guidelines and an increased awareness of security breaches, a Formtek blog post showcases the prevalence of FTP and the need for a more secure solution.
In its post called, “Document Security: Managed File Transfers Enhance Standard FTP,” FormTek highlights survey data showcasing that more than 77 percent of companies still use FTP to transfer files.
The numbers reveal that a great deal of data in the enterprise is flowing in large batch files with no encryption. Formtek says that of those companies that don’t currently use FTP, 40 percent reveal they’d like to set up an FTP site to allow data exchange. The problem is, FTP has been around for 40 years and offers no reliable way to securely transfer files.
FTP does not include any type of encryption for transmitting data. The survey reveals that when given a choice between standard FTP versus secure techniques like SFTP, FTPS and HTTPS, only 20 percent said they would choose FTP. The Formtek post highlights Managed File Transfer (MFT) as technology that addresses FTP security concerns, noting, “MFT solutions include security components to the process of the data transfer, making it more secure.” In addition, MFT offers increased reliability.
Formtek also notes that the survey found the top three challenges to companies that are using file exchange technologies are:
- 49 percent – security
- 30 percent – file size
- 24 percent – file management
These findings are similar to an Attachmate survey that found 53 percent of respondents consider security their greatest challenge when working with file transfers. This again points to the need for a cost-effective alternative to FTP to securely manage file transfers that can address these top concerns to effectively transfer files of any size, securely and reliably.
To read this full article, visit the FormTek blog.
