diff --git a/src/main/java/org/gcube/common/encryption/SymmetricKey.java b/src/main/java/org/gcube/common/encryption/SymmetricKey.java
index b40a127..d9607bc 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/gcube/common/encryption/SymmetricKey.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/gcube/common/encryption/SymmetricKey.java
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 package org.gcube.common.encryption;
 
 import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.security.InvalidKeyException;
@@ -45,13 +47,13 @@ public final class SymmetricKey {
 		return keyContextMap.get(ScopeProvider.instance.get());
 	}
 	
-	public static Key loadKeyFromFile(String keyFileName, String keyAlgorithm) throws InvalidKeyException {
-		try(InputStream is = SymmetricKey.class.getResourceAsStream("/" + keyFileName)) {
+	public static Key loadKeyFromFile(File keyFile, String keyAlgorithm) throws InvalidKeyException {
+		try(InputStream is = new FileInputStream(keyFile)) {
 			byte[] rawKey = getBytesFromStream(is);
 			Key key = new SecretKeySpec(rawKey, 0, rawKey.length, keyAlgorithm);
 			return key;
 		} catch(Exception e) {
-			throw new InvalidKeyException("Unable to load the Key " + keyFileName + " from the classpath");
+			throw new InvalidKeyException("Unable to load the Key " + keyFile.getAbsolutePath() + " from the classpath");
 		}
 	}