What are some best practices for securely handling user passwords in PHP?

Storing user passwords securely is crucial to protect user data in PHP applications. One best practice is to use a strong hashing algorithm like bcrypt to hash passwords before storing them in the database. Additionally, it's important to never store passwords in plain text or use outdated hashing methods like MD5 or SHA1.

// Hashing user password using bcrypt
$password = "user_password";
$hashed_password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_BCRYPT);

// Verifying user password
if (password_verify($password, $hashed_password)) {
    echo "Password is correct";
} else {
    echo "Password is incorrect";
}