code: public static byte[] toBytes(char[] chars) {
          final CharBuffer charBuffer = CharBuffer.wrap(chars);
          final ByteBuffer byteBuffer = Charset.forName("UTF-8").encode(charBuffer);
          final byte[] bytes = Arrays.copyOfRange(byteBuffer.array(), byteBuffer.position(), byteBuffer.limit());
          Arrays.fill(charBuffer.array(), '\u0000'); // clear sensitive data
          Arrays.fill(byteBuffer.array(), (byte) 0); // clear sensitive data
          return bytes;
      }
docs: Converts a char array to a byte array without the use of Strings.
  
  http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5513144/converting-char-to-byte
  
  @param chars the characters to convert
  @return a byte array of the converted characters
  @since 1.0.0