I would start by reading Bruce Schneier's superb book Applied Cryptography, to see if you're already on a well-trodden path. Computer security and encryption as a technical matter is a very deeply analyzed problem with lots of real world experience.

So basically, don't assume your solution is novel. If it seems novel and you're not an expert, then odds are a: it's not actually novel, or b: it won't work.

Applied Cryptography is a pretty accessible book. It helps to have a lot of CS and math, but it's not absolutely necessary to get the gist of most of it.