What are the potential security risks of storing user registration data in a .txt file using PHP?

Storing user registration data in a .txt file using PHP can pose security risks such as exposing sensitive information to unauthorized access if the file permissions are not properly configured. To mitigate this risk, it is recommended to store user registration data in a secure database with proper encryption and access controls.

// Example of storing user registration data in a MySQL database

// Establish a connection to the database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "myDB";

$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

// Insert user registration data into the database
$username = "john_doe";
$email = "john.doe@example.com";
$password = "securepassword";

$sql = "INSERT INTO users (username, email, password) VALUES ('$username', '$email', '$password')";

if ($conn->query($sql) === TRUE) {
    echo "New record created successfully";
} else {
    echo "Error: " . $sql . "<br>" . $conn->error;
}

// Close the database connection
$conn->close();