What are the best practices for handling encryption keys and secure data transmission in PHP applications?

When handling encryption keys and secure data transmission in PHP applications, it is important to store encryption keys securely, avoid hardcoding them in the application code, and use secure encryption algorithms such as AES. Additionally, always transmit sensitive data over HTTPS to ensure data security during transmission.

// Store encryption key securely, for example in environment variables
$encryptionKey = getenv('ENCRYPTION_KEY');

// Use AES encryption algorithm for secure data encryption
$iv = openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(openssl_cipher_iv_length('aes-256-cbc'));
$encryptedData = openssl_encrypt($data, 'aes-256-cbc', $encryptionKey, 0, $iv);

// Transmit sensitive data over HTTPS to ensure secure data transmission