The .NET C# library provides all the basic elements for encrypting a string with a passphrase and decrypting it later. Doing this however requires a few steps in between. This post show a simple set of routines to help you do just that. We use the TripleDES encryption suite to do the actual encryption, with a little help from the MD5 hash sum generator.

The complete source code is listed below, but lets have a little look at how it works first.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hash values have many uses in computing: for storing password tokens, securing that a file hasn’t been tampered with, or to create a short semi-unique signature for a larger data set. A hash algorithm takes a data set — such as a string — and turns it into a numeric value of a certain length.

This article will go into how to create a hash of your passwords and how salting them makes them more secure.

Read the rest of this entry »