Apparatus and method for secure data shredding in an imperfect data storage device. In some embodiments, a hash function is applied to multi-bit random sequence to generate an output hash. A combinatorial logic function logically combines the output hash with a secret to provide an output value. The random string is processed into a plurality of secret shares which are stored in a first location in a non-volatile memory and the output value is stored in a different, second location of the memory. The secret is subsequently shredded by applying an erasure operation upon the secret shares in the first location of the memory.