File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is an application layer protocol, which has the main function of transferring data files between computers (Clark 2003). The protocol specification was initially developed in the early 1970s and was published as RFC 114 in April 1971 by Abhay Bhushan. This happened even before the creation of the Internet protocol suite – commonly known as TCP/IP or Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) – (Kozierok 2005). The protocol specification has undergone numerous revisions over the years since its inception. first creation. In July 1972, the first major revision was published as RFC 354. This revision included a comprehensive description of the "overall communications model used by modern technologies." . . [Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)]. . . and details of many current features of the protocol” (Kozierok 2005, 1170). A revision titled RFC 542, published in August 1973, bears a striking resemblance to the protocol specification still in use today. RFC 765 was published in June 1980 and is considered the current authority for current FTP specification standards (Kozierok 2005). Many extensions have been developed since then, including RFC 2228, which calls for additional security extensions aimed at "providing strong authentication, integrity, and confidentiality" in the FTP specification (Horowitz 1997, 1). RFC 2428, published in September 1998, calls for FTP extensions that can support Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) and network address translators (NAT). Historically, Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses used a 32-bit addressing scheme, while IPv6 uses a 128-bit addressing scheme. As the world moves from IPv4 to IPv6, the middle of paper ......y with added security (Leiden 2009). Works Cited Allman, M., Ostermann, S. and C. Metz. "FTP Extensions for IPv6 and NAT", RFC 2428. September 1998. Clark, Martin P.. Data networks, IP and the Internet: protocols, design and operation. Chichester, West Sussex, England: J. Wiley, 2003. Forouzan, Behrouz A.. TCP/IP protocol suite. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2010. Horowitz, M. and S. Lunt. “FTP Security Extensions,” RFC 2228. October 1997. Kozierok, Charles M. The TCP/IP Guide: A Complete, Illustrated Reference to Internet Protocols. San Francisco: No Starch Press, 2005. Leiden, Candace and Marshall Wilensky. TCP/IP for dummies. 6th ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2009. Lowe, Doug. All-in-one desktop reference on networking for dummies. 3rd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2008. J. Postel, "File Transfer Protocol Specification", RFC 765. June. 1980.