SSH is an encrypted connection to a remote host running an SSH server. It gives you the ability to log on to a system with an encrypted session so that everything -- your name and password as well as your keystrokes . . .
SSH is an encrypted connection to a remote host running an SSH server. It gives you the ability to log on to a system with an encrypted session so that everything -- your name and password as well as your keystrokes -- are unreadable by any sniffer.

One of the handy tools that comes with most SSH implementations is a secure copy tool, usually called SCP. SCP will let you transfer files from one computer to another over an encrypted connection. So whenever content managers update Web pages, they can send the files to the Web server knowing that their user names and passwords are relatively safe.

The Unix world has had SSH servers and clients for a while, but over the past few years these tools have become available for the Windows and MacOS platforms. There are free ones as well as commercial products, which usually run about $100 for the clients.

Having an encrypted connection to your server is a good thing, but you have to take into account any other ways people might access your system. Using an SSH/SCP option for file transfers will greatly aid in the securing of your server and help keep your site off the Attrition.org list of pages that have been hacked.

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