In the context of PHP sessions and file handling, what are some best practices for ensuring data consistency and security?

Issue: To ensure data consistency and security in PHP sessions and file handling, it is important to properly sanitize and validate input data, securely store session data, and restrict access to sensitive files. Code snippet:

// Start a secure session
session_start();

// Sanitize and validate input data before storing it in the session
$_SESSION['username'] = filter_var($_POST['username'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$_SESSION['email'] = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

// Store session data securely in a file with restricted access
$sessionFile = '/path/to/session_file.txt';
file_put_contents($sessionFile, serialize($_SESSION));
chmod($sessionFile, 0600);