Why the F*ck Is Anyone Still Using FTP⁉️

#webdev #beginners #devops #security

TL;DR: FTP ships your credentials in plaintext — a protocol so old it predates disappointment itself. FTPS tried embalming the corpse with TLS, but the zombie still staggers on. And somehow people keep using it, feeding it passwords like a cursed family tradition that should've died the moment we buried plain HTTP.

🧟‍♂️ The Elephant Rotting in the Terminal

FTP was created in 1971, when computers lived in locked basements, trusted everyone, and had only six potential friends to betray.

Today, FTP still confidently delivers:

❌ Plaintext usernames & passwords
❌ Unencrypted file transfers, shouted across the network
❌ Control/data channel chaos, perfect for torturing firewalls
❌ Zero integrity checks, because optimism is for children

Anyone running Wireshark can harvest your credentials like picking fruit from a dying tree. No hacks. No skill. Just "open program, click start, witness failure."

Honestly, FTP should've taken its final breath the day HTTPS replaced HTTP for anything that mattered. But here we are.

🔥 "But My Hosting Panel Handles Security!"

(Play the horror soundtrack)

I learned this the fun way during a recent breach investigation — single FTP login, no brute force, crypto miner deployed. The only reason it got caught by the customer was CPU spikes. That's it. That's the entire attack chain. FTP said "come on in" and they did.

The customer swore — on every holy book known to mankind, plus a notarized letter from a nearest available relative — that the password was strong. And maybe it was. But a strong password sent in plaintext is 🤏 better than having none.

So surely Plesk enforces FTPS by default? Absolutely not. They even have a wiki article explaining how to enable FTPS, which means someone at Plesk HQ had to document the opt-in process for basic security. That's not a feature; that's a liability with its own knowledge base.

And I'd rather not know what cPanel does — some horrors deserve to remain unresearched. If cPanel isn't any better, I'm going to need a decade of therapy to recover.

🪦 "But It Works!"

(So does a frayed extension cord in a puddle)

Reasons FTP refuses to die:

🧟‍♀️ Legacy scripts older than entire career paths.
🕸️ Shared hosting defaults stuck in a mid-2000s fever dream.
🛡️ "We're behind a firewall." Nothing bad ever happens internally, right?
🐌 Tool defaults, because pain deserves consistency.

⚡ The Fix Takes Minutes

(Less time than documenting your breach)

Instead of...	Use...
FTP	FTPS — the "please don't breach me today" minimum
FTP	SFTP — encrypted, modern, and blessedly sane
FTP	SCP — fast & merciful
FTP	rsync over SSH — syncing without tears
FTP for deployments	Git + CI/CD — welcome to adulthood

SFTP & SCP both run through SSH, sharing port 22, modern cryptography, and dramatically fewer reasons for your SOC team to drink.

Don’t misread this as advice to grab a bargain-bin VM instead of shared hosting. That approach makes about as much sense as trying to heal a scorched wasteland by dropping yet another nuclear sun on it.

🧨 The Real Talk

(Brace yourself)

Using plain FTP today isn't "retro." It isn't "minimal." It isn't "simple."

It is summoning security incidents with performance-art enthusiasm.

If you're stuck in an environment where SFTP is mysteriously forbidden by ancient decree, FTPS is the bare-minimum bandage. It's ugly, but your credentials won't drift across the internet like diary pages in the wind.

If your business still uses FTP as the default transfer method, your platform isn’t outdated — it’s a fully operational archaeological dig that somehow charges customers.