diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ea80007..e95eab9 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -219,6 +219,8 @@ npm start
 The `config/development.js` file can be used to configure a local development installation. For production use, the following environment variables need to be set:
 
 * NODE_ENV=production
+* UPGRADE_HTTPS=true  (upgrade HTTP to HTTPS and use [HSTS](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/HTTP_strict_transport_security))
+* PUBLIC_KEY_PIN=<base64 encoded sha256>  (use [HPKP](https://developer.mozilla.org/de/docs/Web/Security/Public_Key_Pinning))
 * MONGO_URI=127.0.0.1:27017/test_db
 * MONGO_USER=db_user
 * MONGO_PASS=db_password
diff --git a/config/default.js b/config/default.js
index ee38db3..2f4ecd8 100644
--- a/config/default.js
+++ b/config/default.js
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ module.exports = {
 
   server: {
     port: process.env.PORT || 8888,
+    upgradeHTTPS: process.env.UPGRADE_HTTPS,
+    publicKeyPin: process.env.PUBLIC_KEY_PIN
   },
 
   mongo: {
diff --git a/config/production.js b/config/production.js
index 70be3ca..e38fa9a 100644
--- a/config/production.js
+++ b/config/production.js
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ module.exports = {
   },
 
   server: {
-    upgradeHTTP: true
-  },
+    upgradeHTTPS: process.env.UPGRADE_HTTPS || true // use HTTPS by default
+  }
 
 };
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/app.js b/src/app.js
index db94091..55f3788 100644
--- a/src/app.js
+++ b/src/app.js
@@ -73,9 +73,23 @@ router.get('/user/:search', function *() {
 // display homepage
 router.get('/', home);
 
+// Redirect all http traffic to https
+app.use(function *(next) {
+  if (util.isTrue(config.server.upgradeHTTPS) && util.checkHTTP(this)) {
+    this.redirect('https://' + this.hostname + this.url);
+  } else {
+    yield next;
+  }
+});
+
 // Set HTTP response headers
 app.use(function *(next) {
-  this.set('Strict-Transport-Security', 'max-age=16070400');
+  if (util.isTrue(config.server.upgradeHTTPS)) {
+    this.set('Strict-Transport-Security', 'max-age=31536000');
+  }
+  if (config.server.publicKeyPin) {
+    this.set('Public-Key-Pins', 'pin-sha256="' + config.server.publicKeyPin + '"');
+  }
   this.set('Access-Control-Allow-Origin', '*');
   this.set('Access-Control-Allow-Methods', 'GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS');
   this.set('Access-Control-Allow-Headers', 'Content-Type');
@@ -84,15 +98,6 @@ app.use(function *(next) {
   yield next;
 });
 
-// Redirect all http traffic to https
-app.use(function *(next) {
-  if (config.server.upgradeHTTP && util.checkHTTP(this)) {
-    this.redirect('https://' + this.hostname + this.url);
-  } else {
-    yield next;
-  }
-});
-
 app.use(router.routes());
 app.use(router.allowedMethods());