What are the potential risks of not encrypting sensitive data in a PHP database?

If sensitive data in a PHP database is not encrypted, it can be vulnerable to unauthorized access and theft by malicious actors. Encrypting sensitive data adds an extra layer of security, ensuring that even if the database is compromised, the data remains protected. 

// Encrypt sensitive data before storing it in the database
$plaintext = "Sensitive data to be encrypted";
$key = "secret_key";
$method = "AES-256-CBC";
$iv = openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(openssl_cipher_iv_length($method));

$encrypted = openssl_encrypt($plaintext, $method, $key, 0, $iv);
// Store $encrypted and $iv in the database

Keywords

SQL injection data breach encryption sensitive data security vulnerability

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