The most common way to get terminal access to a remote Linux machine is to use Secure Shell (SSH). To work, the Linux server needs to be running a SSH server (OpenSSH) and at the other end you need a SSH client, something like PuTTy in Windows or the ssh command line tool on Linux or other Unix-like operating systems such as FreeBSD.
The attraction of SSH is that the connection between the two machines is encrypted. This means that you can access the server from anywhere in the world safe in the knowledge that the connection is secure. However the real power of SSH is that the secure connection it provides can be used for more than just terminal access. Among its uses is the ability to copy files to and from a remote server.
Full article here:
Transfer Files Securely Using SCP in Linux (Make Tech Easier)
Related:
12 scp command examples to transfer files on Linux (BinaryTides)
I have been use this approach before. However, my impression was it could be much slower than FTP. Is this in general true? I was using WinSCP but not sure if using command line SCP will be faster.