diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index d9eba658..7b02b99f 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@
         <commons.version>4.3.0-SNAPSHOT</commons.version>
         <collections.version>4.4</collections.version>
         <avro.version>1.7.7</avro.version>
-        <protobuf.version>3.11.4</protobuf.version>
+        <protobuf.version>3.16.1</protobuf.version>
         <grpc.version>1.28.1</grpc.version>
         <htsjdk.version>2.23.0</htsjdk.version>
         <slf4j.version>1.7.32</slf4j.version>