Is FTP hosting secure?

This task involved installing an FTP client on my computer, linking to the given site and opening the readme file. This resulted in being able to finish the statement to say "according to the readme file, 'CAPITALIZATION MATTERS'".

I found this a very easy task to undertake, however it raised a lot of questions for me. First I wondered if that meant everything in the directory could be accessed.... a few clicks later and a few randomly opened files and I concluded probably yes, at least with as much certainly as I could conclude without opening them all.

Then this got me thinking should we be able to access all the files? It could be assumed that if you are a FTP host you would only make files available that you are willing to have shared... but mistakes do happen.

I also wondered about editing files and uploading files, so I decided to do a little test. I created word document called 'upload testing' with the words 'upload testing' inside and attempted to upload them. I was actually relieved when this resulted in an error message and wouldn't let me upload the document. This lead me to feel as if FTP hosts are more secure than they first appear to be, and lead me to the conclusion that the security of information being hosted in this manner is up to the person controlling the host.