Data, stored in MRAM-cells (12) should be protected against misuse or
read-out by unauthorised persons. The present invention provides an array
(10) of MRAM-cells (12) provided with a security device (14) for
destroying data stored in the MRAM-cells (12) when they are tampered
with. This is achieved by placing a permanent magnet (16) adjacent the
MRAM-array (10) in combination with a soft-magnetic flux-closing layer
(18). As long as the soft-magnetic layer (18) is present, the magnetic
field lines (20) from the permanent magnet (16) are deviated and flow
through this soft-magnetic layer (18). When somebody is tampering with
the MRAM-array (10), e.g. by means of reverse engineering, and the
flux-closing layer (18) is removed, the flux is no longer deviated and
affects the nearby MRAM-array (10), thus destroying the data stored in
the MRAM-cells (12).