diff --git a/backend/app/core/security.py b/backend/app/core/security.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e012ce6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/app/core/security.py
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+"""Security utilities for password hashing and JWT tokens."""
+from datetime import datetime, timedelta
+from typing import Optional
+from jose import JWTError, jwt
+from passlib.context import CryptContext
+from app.core.config import settings
+
+# Password hashing context
+pwd_context = CryptContext(schemes=["bcrypt"], deprecated="auto")
+
+def verify_password(plain_password: str, hashed_password: str) -> bool:
+    """Verify a password against a hash."""
+    return pwd_context.verify(plain_password, hashed_password)
+
+def get_password_hash(password: str) -> str:
+    """Hash a password."""
+    return pwd_context.hash(password)
+
+def create_access_token(data: dict, expires_delta: Optional[timedelta] = None) -> str:
+    """Create a JWT access token."""
+    to_encode = data.copy()
+    
+    if expires_delta:
+        expire = datetime.utcnow() + expires_delta
+    else:
+        expire = datetime.utcnow() + timedelta(minutes=settings.ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES)
+    
+    to_encode.update({"exp": expire})
+    encoded_jwt = jwt.encode(to_encode, settings.SECRET_KEY, algorithm=settings.ALGORITHM)
+    
+    return encoded_jwt
+
+def decode_access_token(token: str) -> Optional[dict]:
+    """Decode a JWT access token."""
+    try:
+        payload = jwt.decode(token, settings.SECRET_KEY, algorithms=[settings.ALGORITHM])
+        return payload
+    except JWTError:
+        return None