diff --git a/hbase10/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/HBaseClient10.java b/hbase10/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/HBaseClient10.java
index 49b699a3880e8c6abfb3c5ed18b03b3b9c3dda80..708432569762ee2460f95a81e6d2db322c897a2d 100644
--- a/hbase10/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/HBaseClient10.java
+++ b/hbase10/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/HBaseClient10.java
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import com.yahoo.ycsb.DBException;
 import com.yahoo.ycsb.Status;
 import com.yahoo.ycsb.measurements.Measurements;
 
+import org.apache.hadoop.security.UserGroupInformation;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.Cell;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.CellUtil;
@@ -112,6 +113,22 @@ public class HBaseClient10 extends com.yahoo.ycsb.DB {
           Durability.valueOf(getProperties().getProperty("durability"));
     }
 
+    if ("kerberos".equalsIgnoreCase(config.get("hbase.security.authentication"))) {
+      config.set("hadoop.security.authentication", "Kerberos");
+      UserGroupInformation.setConfiguration(config);
+    }
+
+    if ((getProperties().getProperty("principal")!=null) 
+        && (getProperties().getProperty("keytab")!=null)) {
+      try {
+        UserGroupInformation.loginUserFromKeytab(getProperties().getProperty("principal"), 
+              getProperties().getProperty("keytab"));
+      } catch (IOException e) {
+        System.err.println("Keytab file is not readable or not found");
+        throw new DBException(e);
+      }
+    }
+
     try {
       connection = ConnectionFactory.createConnection(config);
     } catch (java.io.IOException e) {