A method begins by a distributed storage (DS) managing unit receiving an encryption key to store. The method continues by determining an encryption method and encrypting the encryption key with the determined encryption method to produce an encrypted key. The method continues by encoding and storing the encrypted key in accordance with a dispersed storage error coding function to produce a set of encoded encrypted key slices, wherein a decode threshold number of the encoded encrypted key slices of the set of encoded encrypted key slices are required to reconstruct the encrypted key. Retrieval of the stored encryption key includes retrieving and decoding at least a decode threshold number of the encoded encrypted key slices of a set of encoded encrypted key slices from storage units of the DSN. The method may include raising or lowering the decode threshold or modifying the retrieval order to increase/decrease security.