Powershell - Secure String for Passwords and SFTP - powershell

Question

I am trying to implement a way to use a stored secure string so that my SFTP password is not visiable in the script. For example, I'd like to generate a variable $password that could be used instead. I found the following examples online but I can't get them to work unfortunately. I've done something similar in the past but can find my notes or links to the website that explained how to complete the task.
read-host -assecurestring | convertfrom-securestring | out-file C:\securestring.txt
$pass = cat C:\securestring.txt | convertto-securestring
$mycred = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist "test",$pass
Here is my script. Here is a link to the snapin if anyone is interested. http://www.k-tools.nl/index.php/sftp-in-powershell/
#Add the SFTP snap-in
Add-PSSnapin KTools.PowerShell.SFTP
#Define some variables
$sftpHost = "ftp.domain.com"
$userName = "user"
$userPassword = "password"
$localFile = "C:\bin\emp1.xlsx"
#Open the SFTP connection
$sftp = Open-SFTPServer -serverAddress $sftpHost -userName $userName -userPassword $userPassword
#Upload the local file to the root folder on the SFTP server
$sftp.Put($localFile)
#Close the SFTP connection
$sftp.Close()
Again, thanks for everyones help!
UPDATE
I tried this:
$pass = cat c:\bin\ftpcreds.txt | convertto-securestring
$mycred = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist "usertest1",$pass
$sftpHost = "ftp.domain.com"
$userName = $mycred.username
$userPassword = $mycred.password
$sftp = Open-SFTPServer -serverAddress $sftpHost -userName $userName -userPassword $userPassword
$sftp.Put($localFile)
$sftp.Close()
And get this error:
Method invocation failed because [Tamir.SharpSsh.jsch.JSchException] doesn't contain a method named 'Put'.
At C:\bin\SFTP Upload Samples.ps1:21 char:1
+ $sftp.Put($localFile)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : MethodNotFound
Method invocation failed because [Tamir.SharpSsh.jsch.JSchException] doesn't contain a method named 'Close'.
At C:\bin\SFTP Upload Samples.ps1:36 char:1
+ $sftp.Close()
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : MethodNotFound
Any suggestions?
Thanks!

Answer 1

If your SFTP is wanting to use a decrypted version of your secured password then you'll want to extract it from your $mycred by:
$userpassword = $mycred.getnetworkcredential().password.tostring()