---
title: "Certificates"
description: "Protect your communication with Home Assistant."
---

If you plan to expose your Home Assistant to the internet or want an extra layer of protection in your local network, consider to use SSL/TLS. This way you can protect your communication. Especially sensitive data like usernames and  passwords are encrypted between the endpoints.

Setting up usually requires creating the certificate and configure the [`http`](/integrations/http/) component.