CryptographicException error - newbie question

Hi all,

I admittedly don't know the first thing about .NET. I have a new client who has been having problems on her website and asked me to look into it (she has lost contact with the programmer who originally did this work for her). I know some programming languages, but this is not one of them and I am hoping someone can help me.

My client has a real estate website and I get the following error (per her complaint) when I try and sign up for an account:

CryptoAPI cryptographic service provider (CSP) for this implementation could not be acquired.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicExceptio n: CryptoAPI cryptographic service provider (CSP) for this implementation could not be acquired.

Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:

[CryptographicException: CryptoAPI cryptographic service provider (CSP) for this implementation could not be acquired.]
System.Security.Cryptography.RSACryptoServiceProvi der..ctor(Int32 dwKeySize, CspParameters parameters, Boolean useDefaultKeySize) +985
System.Security.Cryptography.RSACryptoServiceProvi der..ctor() +72
thehudqueen.lib.dbMgr.encrypt(String myStr)
thehudqueen.lib.dbMgr.addUser(userProfile myProfile)
thehudqueen.Accounts.addInterests.butCreate_Click( Object sender, EventArgs e)
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e) +108
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.System.Web.UI.IPo stBackEventHandler.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +57
System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEve ntHandler sourceControl, String eventArgument) +18
System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(NameValueCol lection postData) +33
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain() +1292


Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:1.1.4322.2407; ASP.NET Version:1.1.4322.2407

Looking through some of the code on her website, I see that it says C# and Javascript as some of the languages, but don't even know if I am looking in the right place.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Please let me know if I am posting this to the wrong forum - I assumed that it was .NET because of the last line in the error message.

Thanks much.

re: CryptographicException error - newbie question

Is this website hosted on a "https" server?
It sounds like the encryption certificate is missing/expired?
.Net was probably trying to use it to do the crypto and cannot find it anymore?

re: CryptographicException error - newbie question

When I submit the form, it says http - no "s". I will ask the owner about the encryption certificate. Thank you for the reply.

re: CryptographicException error - newbie question

I wrote to my client but haven't heard anything yet. Do you know where I would find the encryption certificate? Would it be with the hosting company?

Thanks again.

re: CryptographicException error - newbie question

Yes, I believe the hosting company would have it.
I'm not sure if it's relevant or not, but it's my only guess.