A company was recently audited by a third party. The audit revealed the company's network devices were transferring files in the clear. Which of the following protocols should the company use to…

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is primarily used for secure web browsing and communication, not for general command-line or programmatic file transfers between network devices.

LDAPS (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol Secure) is used for secure communication with directory services, such as Active Directory, for authentication and directory queries, not for file transfer.

SCP (Secure Copy Protocol) is specifically designed for securely transferring files between hosts, leveraging SSH (Secure Shell) for encryption and authentication. This ensures that file transfers are not conducted "in the clear," directly addressing the audit's finding and protecting data integrity and confidentiality during transfer.

SNMPv3 (Simple Network Management Protocol version 3) is used for securely managing and monitoring network devices, providing confidentiality and integrity for management data, but it is not a file transfer protocol.