A system and method for detecting a security violation using an error correction code. Some illustrative embodiments may be a method used in a computing system comprising reading a codeword comprising data and an error correction code (ECC) (the ECC associated with the data), deriving an error location polynomial (ELP) from the codeword, determining a total number of codeword errors from the ELP, and preventing access to the data within the codeword if the total number of codeword errors exceeds a maximum number of correctable errors.