Cryptography is the science of writing in secret codes which can be achieved either by using software encrypter or hardware encrypter. This study presents the development of a pair of circuit system-based (hardware) cryptographic processor. The hardware encryption in this study was achieved using the bitwise logic operations in the registers of the microcontroller and messages are streamed as serial ASCII data from the PC through the USB port to the microcontroller unit. The encryption is performed on each ASCII representation using a pass key embedded in the microcontroller unit. Decryption process is similar but in the reverse order. A comparative analysis of the encryption time for the hardware-based data encryption was made and findings recorded. The processor was implemented using PIC18F4550 microcontroller mounted on a Printed Circuit Board alongside other components to achieve the hardware based circuitry. The software end of the encryption and decryption algorithm was developed based on a library built into C Language Visual Studio version 2010 and the CCS C compiler for communication protocol stack.