A method and system for shredding data within a data storage subsystem is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a method is provided of continually shredding data within a data storage subsystem in which all the data of a first storage element is made permanently unreadable followed by the performance of a data shred process. In the described data shred process, second storage element is first selected (e.g., from plurality of candidate or potential storage elements), which includes a first storage object to be preserved and a second storage object to be shredded. Once the second storage element is selected, data of the first storage object is stored/copied within the first storage element. Thereafter, all data of the second storage element is rendered permanently unreadable.