When it comes to the world of data transfer, there are two main metrics that stand out: SFTP, which stands for Secure File Transfer Protocol, and HTTPS, which is an acronym for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure.
While both SFTP and HTTPS have their own advantages and disadvantages, this article will aim to provide a balanced overview of both forms of data transfer. In addition to this, this article will also aim to provide information on their use cases.
The importance of secure data transfer in the current digital landscape cannot be underestimated. Not only are huge financial breaches potentially at risk due to data leaks, but customers can also lose faith in your business, company or organisation if their personal information is not sufficiently protected.
Firstly, we will take a look at SFTP in this context, before moving onto HTTPS, and delving further into both of them in order to provide a sufficient analysis of them both.
SFTP – What Is It?
As mentioned above, SFTP stands for Secure File Transfer Protocol. It is used to secure file transfers between a remote host server and a user over public networks, such as the Internet. SFTP ensures that the host and client are both validated and authenticated.
How Does It Work?
SFTP relies on using something known as a Secure Shell data stream. SSH (secure shell) is a network communication protocol which enables two computers to communicate and share data.
SFTP keeps files secure by using the secure shell data stream. It manages to do this by authenticating both the server and the user, before using encryption and cryptographic hash functions to make the data unreadable during the data transfer.
It is through the use of data encryption that SFTP ensures data stays safe during the transfer process.
A more in-depth version of how SFTP works will be discussed below.
Step 1: Client Initiates a Request
Because SFTP works on a client-server architecture, the client first has to initiate a request to connect.
Following this request, the server opens a secure channel using the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).
Step 2: Identities Are Verified
Next, both the client’s and server’s identities are verified. This is also the step where the secure connection is established and where the connection is encrypted.
The encryption is possible at this stage because the client and server have exchanged keys in order to establish the encryption criteria and the TCP validates the port numbers.
Step 3: Transfer Through the Tunnel
Once the files have been encrypted, they are then transferred through the tunnel – this is, of course, a metaphorical tunnel. It is essentially a secure connection between the SSH server and the client.
Meanwhile, on the receiving end of the file this is where and when the client authentication takes place.
Client authentication is often done through the use of passwords or SSH keys. This is so that the receiver can access the files.
Use Cases of SFTP
Because of its highly secure and safe nature, there are multiple use cases throughout different industries for SFTP. It is one of the most versatile forms of data transfer because of this. A few examples will be discussed in greater detail below.
Financial Institutions
Perhaps one of the first industries which springs to mind when it comes to SFTP is the financial sector – given how much sensitive data (not to mention the sheer amount of money) could be compromised should a data leak occur.
SFTP is often the go-to data transfer method within the financial sector, particularly in financial industries that regularly deal with confidential customer data, like banks.
SFTP is generally the chosen method for data transfer purposes because it provides a secure channel for transferring confidential and often sensitive customer data and information between different financial institutions.
As discussed earlier in the article, SFTP utilises encryption to ensure that any information is safe during the transfer process, thereby offering a more secure method of data transfer over the standard FTP (file transfer protocol).
Healthcare Data
Another industry which deals with supremely confidential data is the healthcare industry – mistakes could not only lead to lawsuits, but possibly even severe illness or even worse, death. Therefore, having a secure data transfer system in place is paramount for the healthcare industry. Of course, the types of files and data that are transferred can also range considerably, from digital health records or electronic health records (EHRs), medical imagery such as x-ray scans and even health examination outcomes, such as a cancer diagnosis.
A further reason why the need to transfer files securely is absolutely essential in the healthcare industry is that it is not always just inter-hospital data transfers. Often, a third party is involved. This third party could be a health network, a private healthcare provider, a health insurance company or a pharmacy.
By encrypting the data that is being transferred, SFTP hugely decreases the chance of any unauthorised access which could compromise the patient or the hospital. It also reduces the chance of any external modifications or even data loss.
Because SFTP can also be used to transfer large files, it is also seen as an attractive option within the healthcare data industry, as this can increase the efficiency of all operations. This is because many small files do not have to be transferred individually; they can all be transferred simultaneously.
Because healthcare patient data contains so much sensitive information, using SFTP is another good reason – it complies with legal regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA (in the United States).
Corporate Transfers
Even within business, transferring data and file sharing securely can be the difference between stepping ahead of your competitors or falling behind and losing hours of valuable work. Because SFTP can transfer large numbers of files at one time, it is ideal for use in the workplace. For example, if you need to transfer large amounts of data to a marketing, design or other creative team to work on a project, the whole file can be sent at one time.
This is ideally better than sending numerous files via email, which are not only easily lost, but are at risk of corruption. On top of this, files are often compressed when sent via email, so the highest quality images, videos and other media files will never look as good as the original file when transferred via email.
The secure transfer of important files is of huge importance when dealing with valuable media assets for the business, company or organisation.
Advantages and Disadvantages of SFTP
As with any data transfer service, there are a range of pros and cons to SFTP. These will be outlined in further detail below to provide a balanced overview of SFTP.
Advantages of SFTP
Security Features
Arguably, the most significant advantage of SFTP is its security features, notably that data is encrypted during the file transfer process. This ensures that any sensitive information will be protected from unauthorised or unwanted access.
The authentication side of SFTP is also worth mentioning regarding the security features. SFTP uses strong authentication methods to keep data even safer. These can range from a compulsory username and password to MFA (multi-factor authentication).
Reliability
SFTP is also known for being a reliable data transfer service to use. Perhaps the most striking feature of its reliability is that file transfer is automatically resumed if there is a break in the connection due to a dodgy internet connection or poor signal.
Not only is this helpful to users at both ends, but it also makes sure that large files do not end up having to be re-transferred once more, costing time and sometimes money to do so.
Platform Availability
Another good reason to use SFTP is because of how adaptable it is to different platforms. Whether you, your organisation, company or business operate on MacOS, Windows or any other platform – it doesn’t matter! SFTP is entirely flexible – so even if users at both ends have different devices, SFTP can comfortably integrate into both environments.
Firewall Compatibility
A further advantage of SFTP is that it is known for being firewall-friendly.
Because SFTP generally uses a single port for communication (usually port 22), this means that it is firewall-friendly. And because it is firewall-friendly, the network configuration is greatly simplified. In turn, this reduces the chances of any issues arising from connectivity problems.
Disadvantages of SFTP
Complexity Issues
As you may have already gathered from reading this far into the article, SFTP can be complicated, especially if you do not know what you are doing or have never set it up.
Sadly, because of its complicated nature, many people are more comfortable sticking to what they know and risk data breaches because transferring large files via email is easier.
Communication
Another issue with SFTP is how it communicates – it uses binary language, which is unreadable by humans.
Difficulty in Management
When it comes to SFTP, SSH keys are notoriously difficult to manage and validate than alternative options.
Functionality Problems
Although SFTP is ideal for file transfers, its limited functionality has been a cause of frustration among some users.
For instance, while its focus is primarily on file transfers, it lacks other features – often more advanced – that other services can offer. Although it is ideal for large file transfers, it does not offer a compression service, meaning it can take longer than other options.
Time Consumption
Because of the nature of the files that are usually transferred through SFTP, it can consume large amounts of time and resources.
This puts businesses or organisations who do not have access to the most up-to-date technology at risk of losing lots of time for every file transfer they complete through SFTP.
HTTPS – What Is It?
Now that we have discussed what SFTP is and its use cases, advantages and disadvantages, we can begin to discuss what HTTPS is before ultimately comparing the two.
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is a type of security protocol which secures communication and data transfer between a user’s web browser and a website. You may recognise the lettering as being at the front of every website you visit when you look at the search bar. It is usually in the form of “https://www” before the website name.
How Does It Work?
HTTPS is important in security measures and cybersecurity protocols for websites that transfer or handle sensitive data. This type of data can be used by email providers (Outlook, Gmail and so on), online shopping services, online banking services, and even healthcare providers.
Essentially, any website requiring login details or dealing with financial transactions should use HTTPS to protect users, data and transactions.
Step 1: Obtaining an SSL Certificate
The first step in learning how HTTPS works is getting a certificate. The website needs an SSL (secure sockets layer) certificate: this is a security protocol that provides authentication, privacy and integrity to internet communications.
An easy way to remember what an SSL is is to view it essentially as a passport but for websites, not people. Details within the SSL include the website’s URL, the certificate authority that issued the certificate in the first place, and the certificate’s expiration date.
However, the website owner needs to complete a few steps to obtain a valid SSL certificate. These are to generate both a public and a private key. A public key is a large numerical value used to encrypt data, while a private key is a secret number used to send encrypted messages.
They then need to go through a process to prove they are the website owner and occasionally a legal, registered organisation.
Step 2: Passport Details
Once the above steps have been completed and/or verified, the certificate authority will issue an SSL certificate to the website owner.
When a user visits an HTTPS website, the website will send the SSL certificate to the user’s web browser.
There should be a padlock icon in the user’s browser at this point – should they opt to click on it and then click into the details, they can view that particular website’s certificate and the information included.
This is an excellent way to ensure that you are confident in who is running the website, mainly if it is your first time visiting a website or you have a bad feeling about it.
Step 3: Verification
Arguably, the most critical step of the lot is the verification step. Simply because the website presents an SSL certificate does not necessarily mean that the user’s browser should automatically trust it.
Websites have good ways of identifying whether or not they should trust SSL certificates, known as the verification process.
The user’s browser will verify whether the SSL certificate was issued by a certificate authority on the browser’s trusted list, ultimately deciding whether you, as the user, should trust it.
The browser can also check if the SSL certificate has expired (hence, section one states that SSL certificates have an expiration date). It can also see if the certificate is valid for the website the user is visiting.
Use Cases for HTTPS
Like with SFTP, there are several use cases for HTTPS, too.
Photo Sharing
Photo sharing is a common use of a HTTPS service – posting photos to online sites such as forums or social media channels means that an extra layer of security is needed to prevent private photos from also being uploaded or shared.
Setting Up a New WiFi Device
Setting up a new device is another example of where HTTPS comes in handy, especially from a data protection point of view.
For instance, if a user wants to set up a new device in their home, like a WiFi router, they need to know that the connection is secure, as well as to make sure that they can manage systems sufficiently and know that no data leaks will occur.
Security Cameras
A similar use of HTTPs comes when setting up home security systems, such as security cameras. HTTPS is required when a home gateway controls other devices, usually remotely. It uses HTTPS to accept commands securely via a remote server.
If a device becomes disconnected through the internet signal going down and still needs controlling remotely, a local HTTPS communication from the user’s local device (such as a smartphone) must be used to control and operate the security devices directly HTTPS connections over the local network, once again adding an extra layer of security, to a security system.
Advantages and Disadvantages of HTTPS
Advantages
Security and Encryption
Of course, one of the biggest benefits of HTTPS is that the data is encrypted during transmission, ensuring that any sensitive information, like a username and password or credit card details, is not compromised.
SEO Visibility
Regarding SEO (search engine optimisation), HTTPS is the way to go – Google prioritises websites with HTTPS in their rankings. This is because a secure connection can lead to a positive experience for the user, which can, in turn, increase website traffic.
No Extra Installation Costs
Installing HTTPS came at an extra cost when moving from an HTTP server – this has since been revised and now comes at no extra cost.
Trust
Trust is one of the most significant advantages of HTTPS. Because websites display the padlock icon and a “Secure” label, it serves as a reminder to reassure visitors of the website’s genuine nature.
Disadvantages
Complexity Issues
Like SFTP, this can be a complicated procedure for anyone who has never attempted it. While those who are trained in HTTPS or web development may be confident in doing so, others may have to call in technical expertise to do it properly.
Website Speed
Sometimes, the speed of your website can be affected because of HTTPS. This is because of the complexity issues that arise with dealing with encryption and decryption.
Mixed Content Errors
The phrase “mixed content error” can sometimes appear on a website using HTTPS. This arises when secure (HTTPS) and non-secure (HTTP) content are combined on the same webpage. Not only does this lead to the mixed content error message being displayed, but it can also compromise the security of the whole webpage.
Website Traffic Reduction
This may seem counter-productive given that one of the advantages of HTTPS is its ability to rank higher in Google, thanks to its SEO advantages. However, websites that switch from HTTP servers to HTTPS servers can receive an initial drop in traffic. This is a disadvantage, primarily if a user relies on their website for their business and has spent money in transferring over to an HTTPS server.
Final Thoughts
While SFTP and HTTPS have advantages and can be fantastic assets for any website, whether dealing with file transfers, cloud storage, or safely encrypting websites, there are also associated disadvantages.
The complexity of SFTP and HTTPS can be hard to manage and even set up in the first place, and website speed, time consumption and functionality can all be victims. Both are great systems, but knowing how to use them is vital for their success. Hopefully, this article has helped increase your knowledge of SFTP and HTTPS.