diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 42511b0a..6c44f001 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -56,31 +56,29 @@ RUN SECRET_KEY_BASE_DUMMY=1 ./bin/rails assets:precompile
 
 *Note: Legacy CSS bundlers `sass-rails` and `sassc-rails` may fail to compile some of the CSS vendored into this library from [Bulma](https://github.com/jgthms/bulma), which was created in [Dart SASS](https://sass-lang.com/dart-sass/). You will therefore need to upgrade to `dartsass-rails` or some library that relies on it, like `cssbundling-rails`.*
 
-### Authentication and base controller class
+### Authentication
 
-By default, Mission Control's controllers will extend the host app's `ApplicationController`. If no authentication is enforced, `/jobs` will be available to everyone.
-
-#### HTTP authentication
+Mission Control comes with **HTTP basic authentication enabled and closed** by default. Credentials are stored in [Rails's credentials](https://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/security.html#custom-credentials) like this:
+```yml
+mission_control:
+  http_basic_auth_user: dev
+  http_basic_auth_password: secret
+```
 
-You can set a simple HTTP authentication by either using
+If no credentials are configured, Mission Control won't be accessible. To set these up, you can run the generator provided like this:
 
-```ruby
-Rails.application.configure do
-  config.mission_control.jobs.http_auth_user = "captain"
-  config.mission_control.jobs.http_auth_password = "topsecret"
-end
 ```
-or you can set it via ENV
+bin/rails mission_control:jobs:authentication:init
+```
 
-```shell
-ENV["MISSION_CONTROL_JOBS_HTTP_AUTH_USER"]=captain
-ENV["MISSION_CONTROL_JOBS_HTTP_AUTH_password"]=topsecret
+To set them up for different environments you can use the `RAILS_ENV` environment variable, like this:
+```
+RAILS_ENV=production bin/rails mission_control:jobs:authentication:init
 ```
-If no value is provided (`nil`, `""` or `false`), authentication is skipped.
 
 #### Custom authentication
 
-You might want to implement your own authentication. To make this easier, you can specify a different controller as the base class for Mission Control's controllers:
+You can provide your own authentication mechanism, for example, if you have a certain type of admin user in your app that can access Mission Control. To make this easier, you can specify a different controller as the base class for Mission Control's controllers. By default, Mission Control's controllers will extend the host app's `ApplicationController`, but you can change this easily:
 
 ```ruby
 Rails.application.configure do
@@ -91,7 +89,11 @@ end
 Or, in your environment config or `application.rb`:
 ```ruby
 config.mission_control.jobs.base_controller_class = "AdminController"
+```
 
+If you do this, you can disable the default HTTP Basic Authentication using the following option:
+```ruby
+config.mission_control.jobs.http_basic_auth_enabled = false
 ```
 
 ### Other configuration settings
diff --git a/lib/generators/mission_control/jobs/authentication_generator.rb b/lib/generators/mission_control/jobs/authentication_generator.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c29eb72a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/generators/mission_control/jobs/authentication_generator.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+class MissionControl::Jobs::AuthenticationGenerator < Rails::Generators::Base
+  def init
+    if credentials_accessible?
+      if authentication_configured?
+        say "HTTP Basic Authentication is already configured for `#{Rails.env}`. You can edit it using `credentials:edit`"
+      else
+        say "Setting up credentials for HTTP Basic Authentication for `#{Rails.env}` environment."
+        say ""
+
+        username = ask "Enter username: "
+        password = SecureRandom.base58(64)
+
+        store_credentials(username, password)
+        say "Username and password stored in Rails encrypted credentials."
+        say ""
+        say "You can now access Mission Control – Jobs with: "
+        say ""
+        say " - Username: #{username}"
+        say " - password: #{password}"
+        say ""
+        say "You can also edit these in the future via `credentials:edit`"
+      end
+    else
+      say "Rails credentials haven't been configured or aren't accessible. Configure them following the instructions in `credentials:help`"
+    end
+  end
+
+  private
+    def credentials_accessible?
+      credentials.read.present?
+    end
+
+    def authentication_configured?
+      %i[ http_basic_auth_user http_basic_auth_password ].any? do |key|
+        credentials.dig(:mission_control, key).present?
+      end
+    end
+
+    def store_credentials(username, password)
+      content = credentials.read + "\n" + http_authentication_entry(username, password) + "\n"
+      credentials.write(content)
+    end
+
+    def credentials
+      @credentials ||= Rails.application.encrypted(config.content_path, key_path: config.key_path)
+    end
+
+    def config
+      Rails.application.config.credentials
+    end
+
+    def http_authentication_entry(username, password)
+      <<~ENTRY
+        mission_control:
+          http_basic_auth_user: #{username}
+          http_basic_auth_password: #{password}
+      ENTRY
+    end
+end
diff --git a/lib/mission_control/jobs.rb b/lib/mission_control/jobs.rb
index e70840dd..1dc12583 100644
--- a/lib/mission_control/jobs.rb
+++ b/lib/mission_control/jobs.rb
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@
 loader.inflector = Zeitwerk::GemInflector.new(__FILE__)
 loader.push_dir(File.expand_path("..", __dir__))
 loader.ignore("#{File.expand_path("..", __dir__)}/resque")
+loader.ignore("#{File.expand_path("..", __dir__)}/mission_control/jobs/tasks.rb")
+loader.ignore("#{File.expand_path("..", __dir__)}/generators")
 loader.setup
 
 module MissionControl
diff --git a/lib/mission_control/jobs/engine.rb b/lib/mission_control/jobs/engine.rb
index 1a1b6711..5b5dc293 100644
--- a/lib/mission_control/jobs/engine.rb
+++ b/lib/mission_control/jobs/engine.rb
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ module Jobs
     class Engine < ::Rails::Engine
       isolate_namespace MissionControl::Jobs
 
+      rake_tasks do
+        load "mission_control/jobs/tasks.rb"
+      end
+
       initializer "mission_control-jobs.middleware" do |app|
         if app.config.api_only
           config.middleware.use ActionDispatch::Flash
@@ -31,8 +35,8 @@ class Engine < ::Rails::Engine
       end
 
       initializer "mission_control-jobs.http_basic_auth" do |app|
-        config.mission_control.jobs.http_basic_auth_user = app.credentials.dig(:mission_control, :http_basic_auth_user),
-        config.mission_control.jobs.http_basic_auth_password = app.credentials.dig(:mission_control, :http_basic_auth_password)
+        MissionControl::Jobs.http_basic_auth_user = app.credentials.dig(:mission_control, :http_basic_auth_user)
+        MissionControl::Jobs.http_basic_auth_password = app.credentials.dig(:mission_control, :http_basic_auth_password)
       end
 
       initializer "mission_control-jobs.active_job.extensions" do
diff --git a/lib/mission_control/jobs/tasks.rb b/lib/mission_control/jobs/tasks.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b1fd03ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/mission_control/jobs/tasks.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+namespace :mission_control do
+  namespace :jobs do
+    desc "Configure HTTP Basic Authentication"
+    task "authentication:init" do
+      Rails::Command.invoke :generate, [ "mission_control:jobs:authentication" ]
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/lib/tasks/mission_control/jobs_tasks.rake b/lib/tasks/mission_control/jobs_tasks.rake
deleted file mode 100644
index 782dc2b3..00000000
--- a/lib/tasks/mission_control/jobs_tasks.rake
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-# desc "Explaining what the task does"
-# task :mission_control_jobs do
-#   # Task goes here
-# end
diff --git a/test/dummy/config/credentials/development.key b/test/dummy/config/credentials/development.key
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c0bed95e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/dummy/config/credentials/development.key
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+67f819f011ec672273c91cf789afb5d7
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/dummy/config/credentials/development.yml.enc b/test/dummy/config/credentials/development.yml.enc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6def87d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/dummy/config/credentials/development.yml.enc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+3wr+OnlAdcQJl0WURd7JXv+pleXbJVWozLH4JfPU6dGc9A0VlQ/kQosdPqDF7Yf/WrLtodre258ALf0ZHE2bQYgH3Eq0cJQ7xN8WwfGjBjXiL6uWaOHcfgcPVNg4E3Ag+YN3EOH8aquSttX7Uqyfv3tPlYQBQ7fs8lXjx3APfl3P8Vk2Yz6bhQcBgXhtFqH+--f7tDKb8EHxaT9l+Z--WIHpj/e3mEcqupnMrf5fvw==
\ No newline at end of file