Creating Your Own Encryption / Decryption Program Using VB.NET 2005

Introduction

These days, protecting your valuable information is absolutely vital.  Anything is possible.  hackers & crackers frequently try to find new ways to break programs and to find critical information, for their malicious purposes.  We shouldn't only care about hackers & crackers, we should be concerned about coworkers using ( or having access to ) your computer.  With this article, I will try my best to assist you in protecting valuable information such as Passwords, account numbers and so on. Before I continue, let me explain the complicated stuff :)

Encryption

Encryption is the translation of data into a secret code, ciphertext. This code is scrambled, and results in an unreadable ( at least by a normal person ) string of characters. There are 2 types of Encryption : Asymetric Asymmetric Encryption is a form of Encryption where keys come in pairs. What one key encrypts, only the other can decrypt. Asymmetric Encryption is also known as Public Key Cryptography, since users typically create a matching key pair, and make one public while keeping the other secret. Symetric Symmetric Encryption is an Encryption algorithm where the same key is used for both Encryption and Decryption. The key must be kept secret, and is shared by the message sender and recipient.

Decryption

Decryption is the process of decoding data that has been encrypted into a secret format. Decryption requires a secret key or password.

Encryption methods

Having a look into the System.Security.Cryptography namespace will give you great insight:
System.Security.Cryptography Namespace

Rijndael method

The Rijndael encryption algorithm has been designed to replace the aging DES algorithm. Like DES, it is a block cipher. It uses 128-bit, 192-bit or 256-bit keys. This implementation encrypts 128-bit blocks. ( DES used 56-bit keys and 64-bit blocks )

Hexadecimal

Hexadecimal (also base-16, hexa, or hex) is a numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16. It uses sixteen distinct symbols, most often the symbols 0-9 to represent values zero to nine, and A, B, C, D, E, F (or a through f) to represent values ten to fifteen.

Ascii

Definition:
ASCII

Acii Table:
ASCII codes

Hannes du Preez is a Microsoft MVP for Visual Basic. He is a trainer at a South African-based company. He is the co-founder of hmsmp.co.za, a community for South African developers.