Cryptography

At A large part of security in any web application is keeping your secrets secret.  Cryptography makes that happen.

Webcasts/Videos

• Cryptography Webcasts on ZDNET - Not sure what MSDN Webcasts are doing over at ZDNET, but it's excellent content.
• MSDN Webcast: Cryptography API: Next Generation Overview (Level 200)
• MSDN Webcast: New Cryptography: Algorithms, APIs, and Architecture (Level 300)
• How Do I Protect and Secure Private Data
• MSDN Webcast: Storing Secrets With ASP.NET (Level 200)
• MSDN Webcast: Keeping Secrets in .NET Applications Level 200
• Implementing Application Security Using the .NET Framework (Part 1 of 3)-Level 200

How To 

• .NET Encryption Simplified - Not specific to ASP.NET, but this is a great paper with some excellent visualizations that helped me get my head around crypto.
• How To: Create a DPAPI Library
• How To: Create an Encryption Library
• How To: Store an Encrypted Connection String in the Registry
• How To: Use DPAPI (Machine Store) from ASP.NET
• How To: Use DPAPI (User Store) from ASP.NET with Enterprise Services

Blogs

• Using Symmetric Cryptography in an ASP.NET Web Page - An oldie but goodie.
• Encrypting Cookie Data with ASP.NET - An interesting and clever solution for storing data in cookies.  I wouldn't get in the habit of putting secret in your cookies, but this is a good article nonetheless.
• Cryptography the .NET Way - An excellent article on the .NET Framework Cryptography Classes.
• Protect ASP.NET data with the DPAPI - "The .NET Framework provides a set of cryptography classes, a more elegant and efficient approach is to use the Data Protection API (DPAPI) built into the Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems"

Enjoy!