diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/jclouds/http/filters/BasicAuthentication.java b/core/src/main/java/org/jclouds/http/filters/BasicAuthentication.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ae817d5fb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/jclouds/http/filters/BasicAuthentication.java
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+/**
+ *
+ * Copyright (C) 2009 Global Cloud Specialists, Inc. <info@globalcloudspecialists.com>
+ *
+ * ====================================================================
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ * ====================================================================
+ */
+package org.jclouds.http.filters;
+
+import static com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkNotNull;
+
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
+import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import javax.ws.rs.core.HttpHeaders;
+
+import org.jclouds.http.HttpException;
+import org.jclouds.http.HttpRequest;
+import org.jclouds.http.HttpRequestFilter;
+import org.jclouds.http.HttpUtils;
+
+import javax.inject.Singleton;
+
+/**
+ * Uses Basic Authentication to sign the request.
+ * 
+ * @see <a href= "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_access_authentication" />
+ * @author Adrian Cole
+ * 
+ */
+@Singleton
+public class BasicAuthentication implements HttpRequestFilter {
+
+   private List<String> credentialList;
+
+   public BasicAuthentication(String user, String password) throws UnsupportedEncodingException {
+      this.credentialList = Collections.singletonList("Basic "
+               + HttpUtils.toBase64String(String.format("%s:%s", checkNotNull(user, "user"),
+                        checkNotNull(password, "password")).getBytes("UTF-8")));
+   }
+
+   public HttpRequest filter(HttpRequest request) throws HttpException {
+      request.getHeaders().replaceValues(HttpHeaders.AUTHORIZATION, credentialList);
+      return request;
+   }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/http/filters/BasicAuthenticationTest.java b/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/http/filters/BasicAuthenticationTest.java
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..2e31335198
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/http/filters/BasicAuthenticationTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+/**
+ *
+ * Copyright (C) 2009 Global Cloud Specialists, Inc. <info@globalcloudspecialists.com>
+ *
+ * ====================================================================
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ * ====================================================================
+ */
+package org.jclouds.http.filters;
+
+import static org.testng.Assert.assertEquals;
+
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
+import java.net.URI;
+
+import javax.ws.rs.core.HttpHeaders;
+
+import org.jclouds.http.HttpRequest;
+import org.testng.annotations.Test;
+
+/**
+ * 
+ * @author Adrian Cole
+ */
+@Test(groups = "unit", testName = "http.BasicAuthenticationTest")
+public class BasicAuthenticationTest {
+
+   private static final String USER = "Aladdin";
+   private static final String PASSWORD = "open sesame";
+
+
+   public void testAuth() throws UnsupportedEncodingException {
+      BasicAuthentication filter = new BasicAuthentication(USER, PASSWORD);
+      HttpRequest request = new HttpRequest("GET", URI.create("http://localhost"));
+      filter.filter(request);
+      assertEquals(request.getFirstHeaderOrNull(HttpHeaders.AUTHORIZATION),
+               "Basic QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ==");
+   }
+
+}
\ No newline at end of file