One example method includes using a primary key to encrypt a decryption key, splitting the primary key into ‘n’ parts, where at least ‘k’ parts of the ‘n’ parts are required to restore the primary key, and ‘k’≤‘n’, storing some of the ‘k’ parts in respective locations in a production environment, and one of the stored ‘k’ parts is held by a verifier stage, receiving, at the verifier stage, a request for restoration of the primary key, where the request is received from a deployment pod and the request includes a subset of the ‘k’ parts and the encrypted decryption key, performing, by the verifier stage, a validation process concerning the deployment pod, and restoring, by the verifier stage, the primary key, wherein the primary key is restored using the ‘k’ part held by the verifier stage.