What are some common misconceptions about encryption and hashing in PHP development?

One common misconception is that encryption and hashing are interchangeable terms in PHP development. Encryption is the process of converting data into a secret code to protect its confidentiality, while hashing is the process of converting data into a fixed-size string of characters, which is typically used for data integrity verification. It's important to use encryption for sensitive data that needs to be protected, and hashing for securely storing passwords or verifying data integrity. 

// Example of encrypting data using OpenSSL in PHP
function encryptData($data, $key) {
    $iv = openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(openssl_cipher_iv_length('aes-256-cbc'));
    $encrypted = openssl_encrypt($data, 'aes-256-cbc', $key, 0, $iv);
    return base64_encode($iv . $encrypted);
}
```

```php
// Example of hashing a password using bcrypt in PHP
function hashPassword($password) {
    $hashedPassword = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_BCRYPT);
    return $hashedPassword;
}

Keywords

encryption hashing PHP development misconceptions security

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