secure uploading

[macaronikazoo]

hi
i'm after a way to securely upload a file to a web server and I'm
wondering how to go about it.  basically i want to upload a small text
file to my hosted webspace once every hour or so.  because it will be
happening once an hour, i want to make sure the transaction is
encrypted, but i don't really know how to do this.  can someone point
me in the right direction?

i'm a reasonably noob scripter so go easy on me.  :)  thanks!
-h.