Are there any best practices for securely storing and managing user data and passwords in PHP applications?

Storing and managing user data and passwords securely is crucial in PHP applications to protect user information from unauthorized access. Best practices include using hashed passwords, salting passwords before hashing, and storing sensitive data in secure databases. 

// Hashing passwords using password_hash() function
$password = 'user_password';
$hashed_password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);

// Verifying hashed passwords using password_verify() function
if (password_verify($password, $hashed_password)) {
    echo 'Password is valid!';
} else {
    echo 'Invalid password!';
}

Keywords

password hashing secure storage encryption PHP password functions user data protection

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