diff --git a/Plugins/org.mitk.gui.qt.xnat/CMakeLists.txt b/Plugins/org.mitk.gui.qt.xnat/CMakeLists.txt
index 8a4a4fa2db..3945fd909a 100644
--- a/Plugins/org.mitk.gui.qt.xnat/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/Plugins/org.mitk.gui.qt.xnat/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,8 +1,23 @@
 project(org_mitk_gui_qt_xnat)
 
+find_package(OpenSSL)
+
+if( NOT OPENSSL_FOUND AND NOT SSL_EAY_RELEASE AND NOT LIB_EAY_RELEASE )
+  message( "Could not find OpenSSL, XNAT will not work for HTTPS connections. Please set the SSL_EAY_RELEASE and LIB_EAY_RELEASE CMake variables to the respective libraries." )
+endif()
+
+if( WIN32 AND EXISTS ${SSL_EAY_RELEASE} AND EXISTS ${LIB_EAY_RELEASE} )
+  configure_file( ${SSL_EAY_RELEASE} ${MITK_BINARY_DIR}/bin/Release/ COPYONLY )
+  configure_file( ${LIB_EAY_RELEASE} ${MITK_BINARY_DIR}/bin/Release/ COPYONLY )
+  configure_file( ${SSL_EAY_RELEASE} ${MITK_BINARY_DIR}/bin/Debug/ COPYONLY )
+  configure_file( ${LIB_EAY_RELEASE} ${MITK_BINARY_DIR}/bin/Debug/ COPYONLY )
+  MITK_INSTALL( FILES ${SSL_EAY_RELEASE})
+  MITK_INSTALL( FILES ${LIB_EAY_RELEASE})
+endif()
+
 mitk_create_plugin(
   PACKAGE_DEPENDS Poco|Zip
   MODULE_DEPENDS MitkXNAT
   EXPORT_DIRECTIVE XNAT_EXPORT
   EXPORTED_INCLUDE_SUFFIXES src
 )