Systems and methods are disclosed herein to provide improved security key techniques for programmable logic devices. For example, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a method of providing data security for a programmable logic device (PLD) includes programming a plurality of programmable fuses that stores a security key comprising a plurality of data bit values, wherein each data bit value is associated with a respective subset of at least three of the fuses. The security key is retrieved from the fuses using the data bit values stored by each subset of the fuses. An encrypted configuration data bitstream is decrypted using the retrieved security key to obtain an original configuration data bitstream to configure the PLD.