In what scenarios would it be necessary or advisable to install SSL certificates on a server for PHP scripts to access secure websites?

When PHP scripts need to access secure websites using HTTPS, it is necessary to install SSL certificates on the server to establish a secure connection. This is important for ensuring data privacy and integrity when transmitting sensitive information between the PHP script and the secure website.

// Example PHP code snippet to access a secure website using HTTPS with SSL certificate verification

$url = 'https://www.example.com/api';
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 2);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

echo $result;