Kirsten Hunter
Kirsten Hunter is a seasoned developer advocate with over 20 years of experience empowering developers and fostering strong technical communities. With a passion for making complex concepts accessible, Kirsten excels at bridging the gap between developers and the technologies they use. Throughout her career, she has worked with leading tech companies to drive API adoption, advocate for best practices, and build tools that make developers’ lives easier.
Known for her engaging presentations and deep technical expertise, Kirsten has spoken at conferences around the globe, sharing insights on topics ranging from API design to emerging technologies. When she’s not on stage or coding, Kirsten is an avid reader, mentor, and advocate for diversity in tech. Her experience, energy, and commitment to developer success make her a sought-after voice in the developer community.
Session
In today’s interconnected digital landscape, secure data exchange is more critical than ever. JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) have emerged as a powerful and lightweight solution for ensuring secure, stateless communication between systems. This talk will demystify the inner workings of JWTs, exploring their structure, encoding process, and role in authentication and authorization. Attendees will learn how JWTs securely carry claims through cryptographic signing, the difference between symmetric and asymmetric key algorithms, and how to implement best practices to prevent common vulnerabilities. Whether you're a developer, architect, or security enthusiast, this session will provide actionable insights into leveraging JWTs to build scalable and secure systems.