FTP Security Risks, Vulnerabilities & Best Practices Guide

**Executive Summary:** This report highlights the inherent security weaknesses of legacy FTP—including plaintext transmission of credentials and files, weak authentication that enables brute‑force and anonymous access, and exposure to eavesdropping—and recommends mitigating actions such as restricting access, disabling anonymous logins, enforcing strong authentication and least‑privilege accounts, implementing logging and real‑time monitoring, segmenting FTP servers (e.g., DMZ), performing regular assessments/penetration tests, and migrating to encrypted alternatives like SFTP/FTPS, managed file transfer solutions, or cloud-based secure transfer services combined with continuous third‑party risk management.