quick question about FTP server access

[Makaveli2007]

I'm working on the website of a friend's friend (SEO). I'm not that tech-savy, yet and haven't used an ftp server before. I got it to work, now, but the thing I'm wondering is this:

Obviously I can change the files on that server (I have access to it), but does this put me at risk in some kind of way? For example: If somebody hacked this person's server would such a hacker have an easier time hacking into my computer, too, because of us being connected by this ftp-thing? Or does the ftp-connection not put me at a higher risk, at all?

I'll be done in a couple of days, and am wondering if I should delete all the ftp stuff after that in order to be on the safe side?

thanks!

[g1smd]

No, the risk doesn't come from that direction.

One risk is that if the FTP connection from your computer to the server isn't secure then someone along the path from you to the server could grab the username and password that you use to access the website server, and then go and make further changes to the site themselves.

This could be as simple as someone capturing your session on to another nearly wireless laptop if you use an unencrypted connection from a laptop to your wireless router, or you use a public access system somewhere.

[phranque]

i would recommend using the SFTP protocol rather than FTP for this reason.