diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 29e497b5..a3c75948 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ Set to true to launch an instance before starting upgrade. This can be useful fo
 
 Name of the external network providing floating IPs for instance connectivity. This provides external connectivity and needs to exist beforehand, created by the user::
 
-    workload_image_url: "http://download.cirros-cloud.net/0.3.5/cirros-0.3.5-x86_64-disk.img"
+    workload_image_url: "https://download.cirros-cloud.net/0.3.5/cirros-0.3.5-x86_64-disk.img"
 
 URL of the image used for the workload instance::
 
diff --git a/defaults/main.yml b/defaults/main.yml
index bc01a08b..d50aa13c 100644
--- a/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/defaults/main.yml
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ launch_sanity_workload: true
 # launch workload before update/upgrade
 workload_launch: false
 external_network_name: "public"
-workload_image_url: "http://download.cirros-cloud.net/0.3.5/cirros-0.3.5-x86_64-disk.img"
+workload_image_url: "https://download.cirros-cloud.net/0.3.5/cirros-0.3.5-x86_64-disk.img"
 workload_memory: "512"
 workload_user: "cirros"
 workload_disk: 5