Password encryption

Here's my attempt:

Imports System
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Configuration
Imports System.Web
Imports System.Web.Security
Imports System.Security.Cryptography
Imports System.Web.UI
Imports System.Web.UI.WebControls
Imports System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts
Imports System.Web.UI.HtmlControls
Imports System.IO

'''

''' Summary description for Cryptography
'''

Public Class Cryptography

    Public Shared rsa As RSACryptoServiceProvider

    Public Shared Sub AssignParameter()

        Const PROVIDER_RSA_FULL As Integer = 1
        Const CONTAINER_NAME As String = "SpiderContainer"
        Dim cspParams As CspParameters
        cspParams = New CspParameters(PROVIDER_RSA_FULL)
        cspParams.KeyContainerName = CONTAINER_NAME
        cspParams.Flags = CspProviderFlags.UseMachineKeyStore
        cspParams.ProviderName = "Microsoft Strong Cryptographic Provider"
        rsa = New RSACryptoServiceProvider(cspParams)

    End Sub

    Public Shared Function EncryptData(ByVal data2Encrypt As String, ByVal path As String) As String

        AssignParameter()
        'Dim reader As New StreamReader("C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\dotnetspiderencryption\publickey.xml")
        Dim reader As New StreamReader(path & "/publickey.xml")
        Dim publicOnlyKeyXML As String = reader.ReadToEnd()
        rsa.FromXmlString(publicOnlyKeyXML)
        reader.Close()
        'read plaintext, encrypt it to ciphertext
        Dim plainbytes As Byte() = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(data2Encrypt)
        Dim cipherbytes As Byte() = rsa.Encrypt(plainbytes, False)
        Return Convert.ToBase64String(cipherbytes)

    End Function

    Public Shared Sub AssignNewKey(ByVal path As String)

        AssignParameter()
        'provide public and private RSA params
        Dim writer As New StreamWriter(path & "/privatekey.xml")
        Dim publicPrivateKeyXML As String = rsa.ToXmlString(True)
        writer.Write(publicPrivateKeyXML)
        writer.Close()
        'provide public only RSA params
        writer = New StreamWriter(path & "/publickey.xml")
        Dim publicOnlyKeyXML As String = rsa.ToXmlString(False)
        writer.Write(publicOnlyKeyXML)
        writer.Close()

    End Sub

    Public Shared Function DecryptData(ByVal data2Decrypt As String, ByVal path As String) As String

        AssignParameter()
        Dim getpassword As Byte() = Convert.FromBase64String(data2Decrypt)
        Dim reader As New StreamReader(path & "/privatekey.xml")
        Dim publicPrivateKeyXML As String = reader.ReadToEnd()
        rsa.FromXmlString(publicPrivateKeyXML)
        reader.Close()
        'read ciphertext, decrypt it to plaintext
        Dim plain As Byte() = rsa.Decrypt(getpassword, False)
        Return System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(plain)

    End Function

End Class