Abstract: This invention describes the use of the features of modern reconfigurable and self-reconfigurable VLSI technology to design highly secure unknown and secret physical functions for security applications. Several examples of sample implementation scenarios for self-generated secret hard-wired cipher- and/or hash functions architectures are shown. A designed, true-random, electronic mutation process autonomously activates the creation of such secret unknown functions in a self-reconfiguring VLSI architecture. It is also shown that such mutation processes can be designed to evolve dynamically in a non-predictive manner to come up with highly secure physical security mechanisms and protocols. This self-evolving property of such functions offers a great security quality which can enhance the security and identification resilience of electronic units to levels similar to those only available in biological systems with highly accurate DNA identification and secured history tracing of living entities.