Disclosed are systems and methods of employing a multi-ring encryption approach to secure a data payload. Each ring of encryption may be encrypted from a key derived from a password, such that each subsequent ring of protection is protected by a key derived from the key used to encrypt the previous ring of protection. Further, hardware-based encryption may be employed in one or more of the rings of protection to bind the encrypted payload to the hardware. Such systems and methods may be used to reduce the ability to parallelize an attack on encrypted data while also permitting password-related data to be synchronized across a network.