What are the best practices for storing and handling passwords in PHP to ensure user privacy and security?

Storing and handling passwords securely in PHP is crucial for ensuring user privacy and security. One of the best practices is to use a strong one-way hashing algorithm, such as bcrypt, to securely store passwords in the database. Additionally, it is important to never store passwords in plain text or use outdated hashing algorithms like MD5 or SHA-1. 

// Hashing a password using bcrypt
$password = 'user_password';
$hashed_password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_BCRYPT);

// Verifying a password
if (password_verify($password, $hashed_password)) {
    // Password is correct
} else {
    // Password is incorrect
}

Keywords

password hashing password salting bcrypt password_verify password_hash

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