title: PHP Authentication
body: <p>Currently my authentication looks like this: </p>
  
  <p>User enters username/password combination
   Sent to the server, the username and password are salted and hashed (md5) and checked against the database.</p>
  
  <p>If correct, and the user has specified, a month long cookie is set. </p>
  
  <p>If the user does not specify to set a cookie, they are automatically signed out after five minutes of inactivity. </p>
  
  <p>My question is simply if I need to, and how to, make this more secure. I'm pretty fluent in PHP, but I'm not as well off in security. Any help, pointers, leads, and general assistance would be appreciated. </p>
  
  <p>Thanks. :)</p>