An embodiment of an electronic apparatus may include one or more substrates, and logic coupled to the one or more substrates, the logic to set an erase voltage for a first block of a persistent storage media to a default erase voltage, determine if the first block of the persistent storage media is identified for a secure erase operation, and set the erase voltage for the first block of the persistent storage media to a shallow erase voltage if the first block of the persistent storage media is identified for the secure erase operation, where the shallow erase voltage corresponds to a weaker erase operation relative to the default erase voltage. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.