In my PHP code I try to download a file from a URL starting with `https://`

```
$curlHandle = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
$response = curl_exec($curlHandle);
curl_close($curlHandle);

```

`$response` happens to be `FALSE` unless I do this:

```
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

```

before `curl_exec()` call.

The URL I download from is from Window Azure Blob Storage and starts with `https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net` so I assume there should be no problems with the server SSL certificate.

What's the reason for this behavior?