File Trans­fer Servers are often con­fig­ured to allow anony­mous access. Some vari­ants even default to allow­ing it. Anony­mous access enables users (and hack­ers) to access the server with­out pro­vid­ing proper logon credentials.

Servers allow­ing Anony­mous Login are tar­gets for hack­ers dis­trib­ut­ing pirated video and music. Intru­sion attempts almost always include an attempt to log on anony­mously to File Trans­fer Servers.

Sen­try Ana­lyt­ics’ user ID view pro­vides a quick answer whether and how much anony­mous logins actu­ally are happening.

Double-​click on the “anony­mou” user ID to see Anony­mous Login activity.