What steps can be taken to prevent potential hacking attempts on PHP applications that store sensitive data?

To prevent potential hacking attempts on PHP applications that store sensitive data, it is crucial to implement proper security measures such as input validation, using parameterized queries to prevent SQL injection, encrypting sensitive data, and keeping PHP and server software up to date.

// Example code snippet for preventing SQL injection using parameterized queries
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username AND password = :password");
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->bindParam(':password', $password);
$stmt->execute();