diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 6eb6530dc..4f479dd5c 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -974,7 +974,7 @@
             <dependency>
                 <groupId>com.google.protobuf</groupId>
                 <artifactId>protobuf-java</artifactId>
-                <version>2.5.0</version>
+                <version>3.16.1</version>
             </dependency>
             <dependency>
                 <groupId>org.apache.velocity</groupId>