'generates an 88 character hash string using a SHA1 derived algorithm
    Private Function GenerateHash(ByVal valueToHash As String, ByVal salt As String) As String
        Dim hasher As New System.Security.Cryptography.SHA512Managed
        Dim valueToHashAsByte As Byte() = _
            System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(String.Concat(valueToHash, salt))
        Dim returnBytes As Byte() = hasher.ComputeHash(valueToHashAsByte)
        hasher.Clear()
        Return Convert.ToBase64String(returnBytes)
    End Function