For poorly configured Apache servers you can have to do something like this to deny access to the .htaccess file:
<Files .htaccess>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</Files>
I would like to deny access to all system files (.* - any file that it's filename starts with a dot). I know it's possible with FilesMatch...
Something like this (but working):
<FilesMatch .*>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</FilesMatch>