How to encrypt String in Java

Question

What I need is to encrypt string which will show up in 2D barcode(PDF-417) so when someone get an idea to scan it will get nothing readable.

Other requirements:

Answer 1

How about this:

private static byte[] xor(final byte[] input, final byte[] secret) {
    final byte[] output = new byte[input.length];
    if (secret.length == 0) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("empty security key");
    }
    int spos = 0;
    for (int pos = 0; pos < input.length; ++pos) {
        output[pos] = (byte) (input[pos] ^ secret[spos]);
        ++spos;
        if (spos >= secret.length) {
            spos = 0;
        }
    }
    return output;
}

Works fine for me and is rather compact.