diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 4956bf3e26..9a57d8e98c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 settings_local.py
+settings/local.py
 *.py[co]
 *.sw[po]
 .coverage
diff --git a/settings/__init__.py b/settings/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8938f3d0a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/settings/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+from .base import *
+try:
+    from .local import *
+except ImportError, exc:
+    exc.args = tuple(['%s (did you rename settings/local.py-dist?)' % exc.args[0]])
+    raise exc
diff --git a/settings.py b/settings/base.py
similarity index 98%
rename from settings.py
rename to settings/base.py
index 5aa10293fc..da33db0125 100644
--- a/settings.py
+++ b/settings/base.py
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ path = lambda *a: os.path.join(ROOT, *a)
 # http://www.i18nguy.com/unicode/language-identifiers.html
 LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-US'
 
+SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE = True
+
 # Accepted locales
 PROD_LANGUAGES = ('de', 'en-US', 'es', 'fr',)
 
diff --git a/settings_local.py-dist b/settings/local.py-dist
similarity index 100%
rename from settings_local.py-dist
rename to settings/local.py-dist