How can data security be ensured when using CURL in PHP for external database interactions?

To ensure data security when using CURL in PHP for external database interactions, it is important to use HTTPS to encrypt the data being transferred. Additionally, you should validate and sanitize user input to prevent SQL injection attacks. Finally, consider using authentication methods such as API keys to restrict access to the database.

$url = 'https://example.com/api/database';
$data = array('username' => 'user123', 'password' => 'pass456');

$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);

$response = curl_exec($ch);

if($response === false){
    echo 'Curl error: ' . curl_error($ch);
} else {
    echo 'Data successfully transferred!';
}

curl_close($ch);