(Visual Basic) Data Encryption and Decryption

as a part of working on our applciation, I am searching for some encryption tools and in the process I landed here at MSDN< again, the inbuilt Crpytography Feature.

Excerpt:

Data Encryption and Decryption

Encryption is the process of translating plain text data (plaintext) into something that appears to be random and meaningless (ciphertext). Decryption is the process of converting ciphertext back to plaintext.


To encrypt more than a small amount of data, symmetric encryption is used. The symmetric key or session key is used during both the encryption and decryption processes. To decrypt a particular piece of ciphertext, the key that was used to encrypt the data must be used. Essentially, a session key consists of a random number, from 40 to 2,000 bits in length. The longer the key, the more difficult it is to decrypt a piece of ciphertext without possessing the key.

The goal of every encryption algorithm is to make it as difficult as possible to decrypt the generated ciphertext without using the key. If a really good encryption algorithm is used, there is no technique significantly better than methodically trying every possible key. Even a key size of just 40 bits works out to just over one trillion possible keys.

It is difficult to determine the quality of an encryption algorithm. Algorithms that look promising sometimes turn out to be very easy to break, given the proper attack. When selecting an encryption algorithm, it is often a good idea to choose one that has been around for a while, and has successfully resisted all attacks.

For more information, see Data Encryption/Decryption Functions.