Exchanging data with business partners is very a common scenario, for diverse businesses this process is crucial for smooth operation. The data not only needs to be transferred on time but also in a secure fashion, many times companies make use of specialized client programs to convert data and then transfer them to external business partners. JSCAPE Secure FTP Server can help solve both issues of time & security by making use of secure file transport protocols such as SFTP, FTPS and HTTPS. When selecting which transport protocol to use it is important to understand how each protocol works and what benefits it offers in any given business scenario.
FTPS is an addition to the common FTP protocol by adding support for Transport Layer Security (TLS) & Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). FTPS has two formats namely Implicit and Explicit SSL. The difference between the two is that explicit SSL 'explicitly' requests the server to provide a SSL encrypted channel while in implicit SSL no such request is made by the client; the server in implicit mode simply assumes that the client will initiate an encrypted connection. It is important to note that FTPS like FTP operates on two channels namely the control channel and the data channel. The connection channel is used to send commands and the data channel is utilized to transfer the actual data. By default only the connection channel is encrypted and the data channel is left unencrypted, not all servers automatically encrypt the data channel, the server has to be instructed to perform data channel encryption. On JSCAPE Secure FTP Server data channel encryption can be enabled by going to <Domain> -> Services -> FTP tab on the Server Manager. When to use data channel encryption depands on your business needs, if the data is of highly sensitive nature, enabling this option is as easy as clicking your mouse button.
Another aspect that adds to FTPS is the use of client and server certificates. A client certificate is utilized to identify the client to the server, in other words the client presents a token of authenticity to the server. A server certificate is utilized to identify the server to the client, in other words the server verifies that it is indeed the correct server that the client is connecting to. By utilizing both client and server certificates FTPS is highly secure and extremely reliable mode of transport. On JSCAPE Secure FTP Server FTPS client certificates can be enabled by going to <Domain> -> Services -> FTP tab on the Server Manager.
SFTP is an alternate to FTPS protocol. Unlike FTPS which is command based, SFTP is a packet based protocol & comprises of only one transfer channel. Note SFTP is not FTP over SSH and certainly not Simple File Transfer Protocol, SFTP is used as a subsystem of the SSH protocol, very often SSH version 2 is utilized. SFTP is always secure, there are no implicit or explicit modes of transfer as in FTPS protocol, it consists of a single, always encrypted channel. SFTP is not necessarily faster than FTPS but instead offers a suitable, equally secure alternative to FTPS protocol.
SFTP supports public-key authentication which is in some ways similar to FTPS client certificates. Public key authentication involves making use a public-key pair which consists of a private key and public key. The public key is installed on the server while the private key is given out to the end user. Everytime the user needs to interact with the server they will need to provide this private key, optionally the private key can also be protected by a pass-phrase, this offers extra security on top of the security on offer by the private key itself. JSCAPE Secure FTP Server fully supports SFTP public key authentication.
HTTPS is the default choice if you want to allow your partners to access your data via a web browser. HTTPS adds to HTTP by making use of TLS/SSL to provide encryption and secure identification of the server. HTTPS security is largely based on known certificate authorities such as Verisign. The certificate from a known issuing authority is installed on the server allowing connecting clients to identify the Certificate authorities and hence validating the server identity.
In addition to secure transfer, JSCAPE Secure FTP Server also supports PGP Encryption & Decryption. The makes it possible to store files on the server in encrypted form, e.g. upon a file upload the file can automatically be encrypted and stored on the server by making use of built-in PGP Encryption on JSCAPE Secure FTP Server. Note that it is not possible to PGP decrypt a file before file download, the decryption has to be performed on the client side using an optional PGP private key in a dedicated PGP client program such as PGP Desktop. Thus JSCAPE Secure FTP Server offers an additional layer of security beyond secure transfer.
Comments