What are the potential security risks of using outdated hashing methods like md5 in PHP for user passwords?

Using outdated hashing methods like md5 for user passwords poses a significant security risk because these algorithms are no longer considered secure due to advancements in computing power and cryptographic attacks. It is recommended to use stronger hashing algorithms like bcrypt or Argon2 for securely storing user passwords.

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