The best way to keep the brick dry is to make sure you have a positive slope on the outside of your foundation wall that directs water away. If your driveway is on the other side of this wall and has a crack between the house and the driveway, then the best thing you can do is to fill the crack up with sand to within 1/16-1/8th inch from the top. Then buy some self-leveling polyureathane caulk and lay it into the crack. This will adhere to the sides of the crack on both sides.
Problem is that it's too cold out now to do this, you'll have to wait for spring in order for it to work. Installing asphalt into this crack will not work, there's not enough give in the ashphalt to maintain a seal and it'll just crack back out.
You should also wait till spring to fix your wall cause the water entry problem will just wreck any fix you do now. But, to fix it you can use a 10% mixuture of muric acid and water to scrub off the efforlescence. Here's a link that'll show you exactly what you need to do.
http://www.homestore.com/HomeGarden/...?poe=homestore
Also make sure your gutters are clear and not leaking and that your downspouts are directed far away from the foundation walls.
A good water sealer is Drylock, but it won't really seep into the concreate walls with a layer of paint already there, you'll have to remove any paint before applying it, then cover the sealer with a latex paint.