In embodiments, data may be encoded based on a tensor product code by encoding incoming data to produce first codewords, and encoding the first codewords to produce second codewords. The incoming data may be combined with the second codewords to produce messages, which can then be transmitted and/or stored. Decoding a received message may include encoding a data portion to produce an intermediate code, and decoding the intermediate code using a codeword portion of the message to produce a corrected codeword. The data portion may then be decoded using the corrected codeword to recover data from the message.