<code lang="VB.NET">

    '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 saltAsByte As Byte() = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(salt)
        Dim valueToHashAsByte As Byte() = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(valueToHash)
        Dim valueToHashPlusSaltAsByte(saltAsByte.Length + valueToHashAsByte.Length) As Byte
        saltAsByte.CopyTo(valueToHashPlusSaltAsByte, 0)
        valueToHashAsByte.CopyTo(valueToHashPlusSaltAsByte, saltAsByte.Length)
        Dim returnBytes As Byte() = hasher.ComputeHash(valueToHashPlusSaltAsByte)
        hasher.Clear()
        Return Convert.ToBase64String(returnBytes)
    End Function

</code>