Novel implementation of memristive systems for data encryption and obfuscation

With the rise of big data handling, new solutions are required to drive cryptographic algorithms for maintaining data security. Here, we exploit the nonvolatile, nonlinear resistance change in BiFeO3 memristors [Shuai et al., J. Appl. Phys. 109, 124117 (2011)] by applying a voltage for the generation of second and higher harmonics and develop a new memristor-based encoding system from it to encrypt and obfuscate data. It is found that a BiFeO3 memristor in high and low resistance state can be used to generate two clearly distinguishable sets of second and higher harmonics as recently predicted theoretically [Cohen et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 133109 (2012)]. The computed autocorrelation of encrypted data using higher harmonics generated by a BiFeO3 memristor shows that the encoded data distribute randomly.