How can a PHP login script be made more secure when handling important data?

To make a PHP login script more secure when handling important data, it is crucial to use prepared statements to prevent SQL injection attacks, properly sanitize user input to prevent cross-site scripting attacks, and use secure password hashing techniques like bcrypt to store passwords securely. 

// Example of using prepared statements to prevent SQL injection
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username AND password = :password');
$stmt->execute([
    'username' => $username,
    'password' => $password
]);

// Example of sanitizing user input to prevent cross-site scripting
$username = htmlspecialchars($_POST['username']);
$password = htmlspecialchars($_POST['password']);

// Example of using bcrypt for secure password hashing
$options = ['cost' => 12];
$hashedPassword = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_BCRYPT, $options);

Keywords

SQL injection password hashing HTTPS CSRF protection session management

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