diff --git a/plugins/encrypted_webinterface/encrypted_webinterface.py b/plugins/encrypted_webinterface/encrypted_webinterface.py
index b982db3..3e78d45 100644
--- a/plugins/encrypted_webinterface/encrypted_webinterface.py
+++ b/plugins/encrypted_webinterface/encrypted_webinterface.py
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ __revision__ = "$Id$"
 
 import cryptobox.plugins.base
 import subprocess
-import os
+import os, sys
 import cherrypy
 
 CERT_FILENAME = 'cryptobox-ssl-certificate.pem'
@@ -213,7 +213,13 @@ class encrypted_webinterface(cryptobox.plugins.base.CryptoBoxPlugin):
 		The code is mainly inspired by:
 		https://dev.tribler.org/browser/m2crypto/trunk/contrib/SimpleX509create.py
 		"""
-		import M2Crypto
+		## check if m2crypto is available
+		try:
+			import M2Crypto
+		except ImportError:
+			sys.stderr.write("Plugin encrypted_webinterface could not import M2Crypto module!\n")
+			sys.stderr.write("Try 'apt-get install python-m2crypto'.\n")
+			sys.exit(1)
 		import time
 		string_type = 0x1000 | 1	# see http://www.koders.com/python/..
 				# ../fid07A99E089F55187896A06CD4E0B6F21B9B8F5B0B.aspx?s=bavaria