Trying to securely erase hard drive, but Security Options not available (Mavericks)

Yes, it is possible to re-enable secure erase. All you need to do is to format the partition once again. Just make sure you select "Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)", with any password that you will remember (just in case). Once formatted, the "Security Options" button will be available again, and you can securely wipe out the partition!

Interesting - so apparently, according to Apple Security Options is grayed out on SSD's because erasing an SSD normally is secure enough:

Note: With OS X Lion and an SSD drive, Secure Erase and Erasing Free Space are not available in Disk Utility. These options are not needed for an SSD drive because a standard erase makes it difficult to recover data from an SSD. For more security, consider turning on FileVault 2 encryption when you start using the SSD drive.

I'm actually on Mavericks, but I'm assuming this article merely hasn't been updated to reflect Mavericks yet.

• found via https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/90942/1261