diff --git a/docs/manual/configuring.rst b/docs/manual/configuring.rst
index 30bd7708..e5922948 100644
--- a/docs/manual/configuring.rst
+++ b/docs/manual/configuring.rst
@@ -555,3 +555,15 @@ To enable the previous behavior, add to config::
   enable_flash_video_rewrite: true
 
 The system may be revamped in the future and enabled by default, but for now, it is provided "as-is" for compatibility reasons.
+
+Verify SSL-Certificates
+-----------------------
+
+By default, SSL-Certificates of websites are not verified. To enable verification, add the following to the config::
+
+  certificates:
+    cert_reqs: 'CERT_REQUIRED'
+    ca_cert_dir: '/etc/ssl/certs'
+
+``ca_cert_dir`` can optionally point to a directory containing the CA certificates that you trust. Most linux distributions provide CA certificates via a package called ``ca-certificates``.
+If omitted, the default system CA used by Python is used.
diff --git a/pywb/warcserver/http.py b/pywb/warcserver/http.py
index 68e8711a..3bb35a9b 100644
--- a/pywb/warcserver/http.py
+++ b/pywb/warcserver/http.py
@@ -17,8 +17,10 @@ class PywbHttpAdapter(HTTPAdapter):
     until a better solution is found
     """
 
-    # todo: allow configuring this later?
-    cert_reqs = 'CERT_NONE'
+    def __init__(self, cert_reqs='CERT_NONE', ca_cert_dir=None, **init_kwargs):
+        self.cert_reqs = cert_reqs
+        self.ca_cert_dir = ca_cert_dir
+        return super(PywbHttpAdapter, self).__init__(**init_kwargs)
 
     def init_poolmanager(
         self, connections, maxsize, block=DEFAULT_POOLBLOCK, **pool_kwargs
@@ -32,11 +34,13 @@ class PywbHttpAdapter(HTTPAdapter):
             block=block,
             strict=True,
             cert_reqs=self.cert_reqs,
+            ca_cert_dir=self.ca_cert_dir,
             **pool_kwargs
         )
 
     def proxy_manager_for(self, proxy, **proxy_kwargs):
         proxy_kwargs['cert_reqs'] = self.cert_reqs
+        proxy_kwargs['ca_cert_dir'] = self.ca_cert_dir
         return super(PywbHttpAdapter, self).proxy_manager_for(proxy, **proxy_kwargs)
 
 
diff --git a/pywb/warcserver/warcserver.py b/pywb/warcserver/warcserver.py
index d417c0fa..622aba2f 100644
--- a/pywb/warcserver/warcserver.py
+++ b/pywb/warcserver/warcserver.py
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@ from pywb.utils.loaders import load_yaml_config, load_overlay_config
 
 from pywb.warcserver.basewarcserver import BaseWarcServer
 
+from pywb.warcserver.http import PywbHttpAdapter, DefaultAdapters
+from urllib3.util.retry import Retry
+
 from pywb.warcserver.index.aggregator import CacheDirectoryIndexSource, RedisMultiKeyIndexSource
 from pywb.warcserver.index.aggregator import GeventTimeoutAggregator, SimpleAggregator
 
@@ -70,6 +73,15 @@ class WarcServer(BaseWarcServer):
 
         self.rules_file = self.config.get('rules_file', '')
 
+        if 'certificates' in self.config:
+            certs_config = self.config['certificates']
+            DefaultAdapters.live_adapter = PywbHttpAdapter(max_retries=Retry(3),
+                                                           cert_reqs=certs_config.get('cert_reqs', 'CERT_NONE'),
+                                                           ca_cert_dir=certs_config.get('ca_cert_dir'))
+            DefaultAdapters.remote_adapter = PywbHttpAdapter(max_retries=Retry(3),
+                                                             cert_reqs=certs_config.get('cert_reqs', 'CERT_NONE'),
+                                                             ca_cert_dir=certs_config.get('ca_cert_dir'))
+
         self.auto_handler = None
 
         if self.config.get('enable_auto_colls', True):
diff --git a/tests/config_test_cert_req.yaml b/tests/config_test_cert_req.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e4505bfb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/config_test_cert_req.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+debug: true
+
+collections:
+    live: $live
+
+certificates:
+    cert_reqs: 'CERT_REQUIRED'
diff --git a/tests/test_cert_req.py b/tests/test_cert_req.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e7eac821
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_cert_req.py
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+from .base_config_test import BaseConfigTest
+
+# ============================================================================
+class TestCertReq(BaseConfigTest):
+    @classmethod
+    def setup_class(cls):
+        super(TestCertReq, cls).setup_class('config_test_cert_req.yaml')
+
+    def test_expired_cert(self):
+        resp = self.testapp.get('/live/mp_/https://expired.badssl.com/', status='*')
+
+        assert resp.status_int == 400
+
+    def test_good_cert(self):
+        resp = self.testapp.get('/live/mp_/https://www.google.com/', status='*')
+
+        assert resp.status_int >= 200 and resp.status_int < 400