diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index bc4c951..54ec7b3 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -6,5 +6,3 @@ before_install:
 node_js:
   - "6"
   - "4"
-  - "0.12"
-  - "0.10"
diff --git a/src/base64url.ts b/src/base64url.ts
index 8a077df..1279459 100644
--- a/src/base64url.ts
+++ b/src/base64url.ts
@@ -6,11 +6,11 @@ function encode(input: string | Buffer, encoding: string = "utf8"): string {
     if (Buffer.isBuffer(input)) {
         return fromBase64(input.toString("base64"));
     }
-    return fromBase64(new Buffer(input as string, encoding).toString("base64"));
+    return fromBase64(Buffer.from(input as string, encoding).toString("base64"));
 };
 
 function decode(base64url: string, encoding: string = "utf8"): string {
-    return new Buffer(toBase64(base64url), "base64").toString(encoding);
+    return Buffer.from(toBase64(base64url), "base64").toString(encoding);
 }
 
 function toBase64(base64url: string | Buffer): string {
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ function fromBase64(base64: string): string {
 }
 
 function toBuffer(base64url: string): Buffer {
-    return new Buffer(toBase64(base64url), "base64");
+    return Buffer.from(toBase64(base64url), "base64");
 }
 
 export interface Base64Url {
diff --git a/src/pad-string.ts b/src/pad-string.ts
index 7f52d7f..fd6b35b 100644
--- a/src/pad-string.ts
+++ b/src/pad-string.ts
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ export default function padString(input: string): string {
     let position = stringLength;
     let padLength = segmentLength - diff;
     let paddedStringLength = stringLength + padLength;
-    let buffer = new Buffer(paddedStringLength);
+    let buffer = Buffer.alloc(paddedStringLength);
 
     buffer.write(input);
 
diff --git a/test/base64url.test.js b/test/base64url.test.js
index 61ef6f4..dce5384 100644
--- a/test/base64url.test.js
+++ b/test/base64url.test.js
@@ -54,3 +54,19 @@ test('from base64url to buffer', function (t) {
   t.same(result, testBuffer, 'should be able to convert to buffer');
   t.end();
 });
+
+test('encode validates input', function (t) {
+  const b64url = base64url(testBuffer, 'binary');
+
+  var result = undefined;
+
+  try {
+    base64url.encode(1000);
+  } catch (err) {
+    result = err;
+  }
+
+  t.not(result, undefined, 'should validate encode input is string or Buffer');
+  t.end();
+});
+