Sparkassen discontinue password manager S-Trust

The password and document manager S-Trust from the Sparkassen will soon be history. The offer ends on March 31, 2026. It has not achieved the hoped-for market penetration.

The Sparkassen are now announcing this on the S-Trust website. For background information, you can find more details, for example, at the Sparkasse Hannover: "Despite all joint efforts, S-Trust could not establish itself permanently in a highly competitive market with international competitors. Unfortunately, economically viable continued operation is not possible."

S-Trust users must take action

Those who use the service can switch to the provider of the original software – SecureSafe from the Swiss company DSwiss AG. "Users can transfer their data to SecureSafe via a technical transfer option provided by DSwiss, provided they independently decide to use this service," explains the Sparkasse. Users are responsible for this, and the offer is exclusively available from DSwiss itself. The Hannover Sparkasse provides the instructions for the switch in its announcement linked above.

Those who wish to switch to entirely different providers will find help for this as well. This might be a good idea: In the test of password managers by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) in December last year, the IT security authority concluded that the manufacturer could theoretically access the data, as SecureSafe only encrypts and decrypts on the server side. According to the BSI, one must therefore trust the manufacturer that the "compensatory measures" effectively prevent such access. Behind the S-Trust Password Manager is the SecureSafe app, merely branded with the Sparkassen logo, so this also applies to the Sparkassen offspring.

Secure documents

Users must dissolve connections with the electronic mailbox of the Sparkassen and, beforehand, move any documents stored at S-Trust back to the mailbox. Users should also store other documents kept with the document management system elsewhere to avoid losing access.

Approximately 80 percent of Sparkassen participate in S-Trust. This includes large ones like Haspa or Berliner Sparkasse.

(dmk)