Fastest bitwise xor between two multibyte binary data variables

xor.py

def xor(data, key):
    import numpy, math

    # key multiplication in order to match the data length
    key = (key*int(math.ceil(float(len(data))/float(len(key)))))[:len(data)]

    # Select the type size in bytes       
    for i in (8,4,2,1):
        if not len(data) % i: break

    if i == 8: dt = numpy.dtype('<Q8');
    elif i == 4: dt = numpy.dtype('<L4');
    elif i == 2: dt = numpy.dtype('<H2');
    else: dt = numpy.dtype('B');

    return numpy.bitwise_xor(numpy.fromstring(key, dtype=dt), numpy.fromstring(data, dtype=dt)).tostring()