Systems and methods are disclosed herein for protecting data in a storage device by encrypting or decrypting the data with a Data Encryption Key (DEK). The storage device is communicatively coupled to a host. In one example, the storage device receives a credential from the host and authenticates the credential with a transformed credential. A Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) generates a PUF response based on a challenge, responsive to successful authentication of the credential from the host. Based on the PUF response, a DEK generation module in the storage device generates a DEK. A crypto module in the storage device uses the DEK and performs encryption of data to be stored in the storage device and/or decryption of data being assessed by the host.