Recently, JIRA Issue Updater has ceased to work due to the following error:

Could not connect to Jira. The cause is one of the following:

• cannot reach Jira via the configured SOAP URL: https://jira.ecolane.com/rpc/soap/jirasoapservice-v2. Make sure Jira is started, reachable from this machine, has SOAP enabled and the given SOAP url is correct.
• the given Jira credentials are incorrect.
  You can find details on the exact problem in the Jenkins server logs.

jenkins.log:

hostname:madmax1.ecolane.com

javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
at org.apache.axis.AxisFault.makeFault(AxisFault.java:101)
at org.apache.axis.transport.http.HTTPSender.invoke(HTTPSender.java:154)
at org.apache.axis.strategies.InvocationStrategy.visit(InvocationStrategy.java:32)
at org.apache.axis.SimpleChain.doVisiting(SimpleChain.java:118)
at org.apache.axis.SimpleChain.invoke(SimpleChain.java:83)
at org.apache.axis.client.AxisClient.invoke(AxisClient.java:165)
at org.apache.axis.client.Call.invokeEngine(Call.java:2784)
at org.apache.axis.client.Call.invoke(Call.java:2767)
at org.apache.axis.client.Call.invoke(Call.java:2443)
at org.apache.axis.client.Call.invoke(Call.java:2366)
at org.apache.axis.client.Call.invoke(Call.java:1812)
at com.atlassian.jira.rpc.soap.client.JirasoapserviceV2SoapBindingStub.login(JirasoapserviceV2SoapBindingStub.java:3790)
at info.bluefloyd.jenkins.SOAPSession.connect(SOAPSession.java:47)
at info.bluefloyd.jenkins.SOAPClient.authenticateSoapSession(SOAPClient.java:46)
at info.bluefloyd.jenkins.SOAPClient.connect(SOAPClient.java:40)
at info.bluefloyd.jenkins.IssueUpdatesBuilder.perform(IssueUpdatesBuilder.java:154)
at hudson.tasks.BuildStepMonitor$1.perform(BuildStepMonitor.java:20)
at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractBuildExecution.perform(AbstractBuild.java:804)
at hudson.model.Build$BuildExecution.build(Build.java:199)
at hudson.model.Build$BuildExecution.doRun(Build.java:160)
at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractBuildExecution.run(AbstractBuild.java:585)
at hudson.model.Run.execute(Run.java:1676)
at hudson.model.FreeStyleBuild.run(FreeStyleBuild.java:43)
at hudson.model.ResourceController.execute(ResourceController.java:88)
at hudson.model.Executor.run(Executor.java:231)
Caused by: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
at sun.security.ssl.Alerts.getSSLException(Alerts.java:192)
at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.fatal(SSLSocketImpl.java:1886)
at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.fatalSE(Handshaker.java:276)
at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.fatalSE(Handshaker.java:270)
at sun.security.ssl.ClientHandshaker.serverCertificate(ClientHandshaker.java:1341)
at sun.security.ssl.ClientHandshaker.processMessage(ClientHandshaker.java:153)
at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.processLoop(Handshaker.java:868)
at sun.security.ssl.Handshaker.process_record(Handshaker.java:804)
at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:1016)
at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1312)
at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1339)
at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1323)
at org.apache.axis.components.net.JSSESocketFactory.create(JSSESocketFactory.java:186)
at org.apache.axis.transport.http.HTTPSender.getSocket(HTTPSender.java:191)
at org.apache.axis.transport.http.HTTPSender.writeToSocket(HTTPSender.java:404)
at org.apache.axis.transport.http.HTTPSender.invoke(HTTPSender.java:138)
... 23 more
Caused by: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.doBuild(PKIXValidator.java:385)
at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.engineValidate(PKIXValidator.java:292)
at sun.security.validator.Validator.validate(Validator.java:260)
at sun.security.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.validate(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:326)
at sun.security.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.checkTrusted(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:231)
at sun.security.ssl.X509TrustManagerImpl.checkServerTrusted(X509TrustManagerImpl.java:126)
at sun.security.ssl.ClientHandshaker.serverCertificate(ClientHandshaker.java:1323)
... 34 more
Caused by: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target
at sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilder.engineBuild(SunCertPathBuilder.java:196)
at java.security.cert.CertPathBuilder.build(CertPathBuilder.java:268)
at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.doBuild(PKIXValidator.java:380)
... 40 more

curl works fine with the configured URL:
curl https://jira.ecolane.com/rpc/soap/jirasoapservice-v2
<h1>jirasoapservice-v2</h1>
<p>Hi there, this is an AXIS service!</p>
<i>Perhaps there will be a form for invoking the service here...</i>