diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index 63dca92..f71d75e 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -6,10 +6,21 @@ const util = require('./lib/util');
 const assert = require('assert');
 const uuid = require('uuid/v4');
 const is = require('is-type-of');
+const encrypt = require('./lib/encrypt');
 
 const CONTEXT_SESSION = Symbol('context#contextSession');
 const _CONTEXT_SESSION = Symbol('context#_contextSession');
 
+const defaults = {
+  key: 'koa:sess',
+  overwrite: true,
+  httpOnly: true,
+  signed: true,
+  autoCommit: true,
+  maxAge: null,
+  useCrypt: false,
+};
+
 /**
  * Initialize session middleware with `opts`:
  *
@@ -58,27 +69,29 @@ module.exports = function(opts, app) {
  */
 
 function formatOpts(opts) {
-  opts = opts || {};
+  opts = Object.assign({}, defaults, opts || {});
+
   // key
-  opts.key = opts.key || 'koa:sess';
+  opts.key = opts.key || defaults.key;
 
   // back-compat maxage
   if (!('maxAge' in opts)) opts.maxAge = opts.maxage;
 
   // defaults
-  if (opts.overwrite == null) opts.overwrite = true;
-  if (opts.httpOnly == null) opts.httpOnly = true;
-  if (opts.signed == null) opts.signed = true;
-  if (opts.autoCommit == null) opts.autoCommit = true;
+  if (opts.overwrite == null) opts.overwrite = defaults.overwrite;
+  if (opts.httpOnly == null) opts.httpOnly = defaults.httpOnly;
+  if (opts.signed == null) opts.signed = defaults.signed;
+  if (opts.autoCommit == null) opts.autoCommit = defaults.autoCommit;
+  if (opts.useCrypt == null) opts.useCrypt = defaults.useCrypt;
 
   debug('session options %j', opts);
 
   // setup encoding/decoding
   if (typeof opts.encode !== 'function') {
-    opts.encode = util.encode;
+    opts.encode = opts.useCrypt ? encrypt.encryptData : util.encode;
   }
   if (typeof opts.decode !== 'function') {
-    opts.decode = util.decode;
+    opts.decode = opts.useCrypt ? encrypt.decryptData : util.decode;
   }
 
   const store = opts.store;
diff --git a/lib/context.js b/lib/context.js
index c0437b4..3642b75 100644
--- a/lib/context.js
+++ b/lib/context.js
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ class ContextSession {
     let json;
     debug('parse %s', cookie);
     try {
-      json = opts.decode(cookie);
+      json = opts.decode(cookie, opts);
     } catch (err) {
       // backwards compatibility:
       // create a new session if parsing fails.
@@ -326,7 +326,7 @@ class ContextSession {
 
     // save to cookie
     debug('save %j to cookie', json);
-    json = opts.encode(json);
+    json = opts.encode(json, opts);
     debug('save %s', json);
 
     this.ctx.cookies.set(key, json, opts);
diff --git a/lib/encrypt.js b/lib/encrypt.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..38b4447
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/encrypt.js
@@ -0,0 +1,218 @@
+'use strict';
+
+const crypto = require('crypto');
+
+/**
+ * The maximum length of a cookie. Any encoded cookie that exceeds this length should immediately throw an error
+ * @type {number}
+ */
+const ENC_MAX_LEN = 4093;
+
+/**
+ * Convert a hex string to a Buffer object
+ * @param {string} text The hex string
+ * @return {Buffer} The converted hex string to a Buffer object
+ */
+const convertHexToBuffer = text => Buffer.from(text, 'hex');
+
+/**
+ * Generate the IV Buffer
+ * @param {number}len The buffer length
+ * @return {Buffer | void} A Buffer of randomly generated bytes of len, or null on failure
+ */
+const genIv = len => crypto.randomBytes(len);
+
+/**
+ * Extracts the IV component of the encoded string
+ * @param {string} data The encrypted data to convert into separate components
+ * @throw {EvalError} If the data is not correctly formatted
+ * @throw {RangeError} if the number of encryption components is not correct
+ * @return {{data: Buffer, auth: Buffer, iv: Buffer}} An object representation of the users' session and encoding components
+ */
+const extractComponents = data => {
+  const text = Buffer.from(data, 'base64').toString('utf8');
+  if (!text.includes('.')) {
+    throw new EvalError('Cannot evaluate encrypted text, invalid data');
+  }
+
+  const components = text.split('.');
+  if (components.length < 3 || (!components[0] || !components[1] || !components[2])) {
+    throw new RangeError('Cannot evaluate encrypted text, invalid number of components');
+  }
+
+  return {
+    iv: convertHexToBuffer(components[0]),
+    auth: convertHexToBuffer(components[1]),
+    data: convertHexToBuffer(components[2]),
+  };
+};
+
+/**
+ * Create an instance of the crypto cipheriv class
+ * @param {string} method The encryption method to use
+ * @param {string} secret The encryption key
+ * @param {Buffer} iv The a buffer of randomly generated bytes
+ * @return {Cipher} The instance of the cipher
+ */
+const genCipher = (method, secret, iv) => crypto.createCipheriv(method, secret, iv);
+
+/**
+ * Create an instance of the crypto decipheriv class
+ * @param {string} method The encryption method to use
+ * @param {string} secret The encryption key
+ * @param {Buffer} iv The a buffer of randomly generated bytes
+ * @return {Decipher} The instance of the decipher
+ */
+const genDecipher = (method, secret, iv) => crypto.createDecipheriv(method, secret, iv);
+
+/**
+ * Encode a JSON session to string and encrypt it for storage in the session cookie
+ * @param {Cipher} cipher The instance of the cipher
+ * @param {Object} data The JSON data
+ * @return {Buffer} The encrypted buffer of data
+ */
+const encryptSession = (cipher, data) => Buffer.concat([
+  cipher.update(JSON.stringify(data)),
+  cipher.final(),
+]);
+
+/**
+ * Convert the three components used to create the encrypted session data to base64 for storage in the users' session cookie
+ * @param {Buffer} iv The initialization vector
+ * @param {Buffer} auth The auth tag
+ * @param {Buffer} text The encrypted text
+ * @return {string} A base64 encoded representation of the three components concatenanted together
+ */
+const compileEncryptString = (iv, auth, text) => Buffer.from([
+  iv.toString('hex'),
+  auth.toString('hex'),
+  text.toString('hex'),
+].join('.')).toString('base64');
+
+/**
+ * A helper function to convert the encrypted text stored in the cookie, from binary data to decrypted utf8 string
+ * @param {Decipher} cipher The instance of the cipher that's used to decode
+ * @param {Buffer} text The encrypted text
+ * @return {string} The decoded session data as a string
+ */
+const decodeToUtf8 = (cipher, text) => cipher.update(text, 'binary', 'utf8') + cipher.final('utf8');
+
+/**
+ * A helper function to convert the decoded session data to an object
+ * @param {string} text The decrypted text
+ * @return {Object} The session data in JSON format
+ * @throws {EvalError} if the JSON cannot be decoded
+ */
+const decodeToJson = text => {
+  let json = null;
+  try {
+    json = JSON.parse(text);
+  } catch (e) {
+    throw new EvalError('Cannot convert decoded cookie string to valid JSON');
+  }
+
+  // ??? a parse error that wasn't caught?
+  if (!json || json === void 0) {
+    throw new EvalError('Cannot convert decoded cookie string to valid JSON');
+  }
+
+  return json;
+};
+
+/**
+ * A helper function to assert if the required values exist for the encryption, descryption efforts
+ * @param {Object} opts Options required for encryption/decryption
+ * @return {boolean} True if the required values are present
+ * @throws {Error} When the required values are not present
+ */
+const assertOptsExist = opts => {
+  if (opts === void 0 || (!opts.algo || !opts.ivlen || !opts.secret)) {
+    throw new Error('Cannot encrypt session data, encryption opts {algo, ivlen, secret} is required');
+  }
+
+  return true;
+};
+
+/**
+ * A helper function to extract the AuthTag Buffer from the Cipher instance
+ * @param {Cipher} cipher The instance of the cipher
+ * @param {string} method The encryption method
+ * @return {Buffer} A buffer containing the auth tag, or an empty buffer with zero bytes
+ */
+const getCipherAuthTag = (cipher, method) => {
+  if (method.toLowerCase().indexOf('gcm') !== false ||
+    method.toLowerCase().indexOf('ccm') !== false ||
+    method.toLowerCase().indexOf('ocb') !== false) {
+    return cipher.getAuthTag();
+  }
+
+  return Buffer.alloc(0);
+};
+
+/**
+ * Encodes a JSON representation of the session as secure cookie data in the following format:
+ * iv.auth.data
+ *
+ * The encrypted session is then converted to base64 for storage. It requires the following options:
+ * {
+ *  algo: string,
+ *  ivlen: number,
+ *  secret: string,
+ * }
+ *
+ * The IV length must be a valid length to match the algorithm used. If you choose to use 'aes-256-cbc', you must use
+ * an IV length of 16, while
+ * @param {Object} data The JSON session data
+ * @param {Object} opts The option configuration for the encryption steps
+ * @throws {TypeError} if the data is invalid or empty
+ * @throws {Error} If the encryption is not successful, or cookie max byte length is exceeded, or the required options are not present
+ * @return {string} A base64 encoded string of the encrypted session
+ */
+const encryptData = (data, opts) => {
+  if (data !== Object(data)) {
+    throw new TypeError('Session data is invalid, cannot encrypt');
+  }
+
+  assertOptsExist(opts);
+
+  const iv = genIv(opts.ivlen);
+  const cipher = genCipher(opts.algo, opts.secret, iv);
+  const encSession = encryptSession(cipher, data); // Must be done before we get the AuthTag
+  const encText = compileEncryptString(iv, getCipherAuthTag(cipher, opts.algo), encSession);
+
+  if (Buffer.byteLength(encText) > ENC_MAX_LEN) {
+    throw new Error('Cannot encrypt the session, max cookie length exceeded');
+  }
+
+  return encText;
+};
+
+/**
+ * Decrypts the encoded cookie, returns the cookie data as a JSON representation
+ * @param {string} text The encrypted cookie data
+ * @param {Object} opts The option configuration for the encryption steps
+ * @throws {Error} If the text is null, zero-byte or invalid, or the decryption is not successful, or the required options are not present
+ * @return {Object} the JSON representation fo the users' session
+ */
+const decryptData = (text, opts) => {
+  if (!text || Buffer.byteLength(text) < 1) {
+    throw new Error('Cannot read encrypted cookie, invalid data');
+  }
+
+  assertOptsExist(opts);
+
+  const components = extractComponents(text);
+  const cipher = genDecipher(opts.algo, opts.secret, components.iv);
+
+  // Only set the AuthTag if we are using one of 'GCM, CCM and OCB'
+  if (components.auth && components.auth.length > 0 && (typeof cipher.setAuthTag === 'function')) {
+    cipher.setAuthTag(components.auth);
+  }
+
+  return decodeToJson(decodeToUtf8(cipher, components.data));
+};
+
+module.exports = {
+  encryptData,
+  decryptData,
+};