diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index b08f05e4..100a2e48 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@
         <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
         <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
         <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
+        <maven.compiler.release>8</maven.compiler.release>
 
         <test.groups>gate</test.groups>
         <skipITs>true</skipITs>
@@ -64,6 +65,12 @@
                 <artifactId>httpmime</artifactId>
                 <version>4.5.14</version>
             </dependency>
+            <!-- Updated 4th party dependency commons-codec, used by Apache http -->
+            <dependency>
+                <groupId>commons-codec</groupId>
+                <artifactId>commons-codec</artifactId>
+                <version>1.18.0</version>
+            </dependency>
             <dependency>
                 <groupId>info.picocli</groupId>
                 <artifactId>picocli</artifactId>
@@ -72,7 +79,7 @@
             <dependency>
                 <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
                 <artifactId>junit-jupiter-engine</artifactId>
-                <version>5.11.4</version>
+                <version>5.12.1</version>
                 <scope>test</scope>
             </dependency>
             <dependency>
@@ -89,7 +96,7 @@
             <dependency>
                 <groupId>org.jetbrains</groupId>
                 <artifactId>annotations</artifactId>
-                <version>26.0.1</version>
+                <version>26.0.2</version>
             </dependency>
         </dependencies>
     </dependencyManagement>
@@ -149,7 +156,7 @@
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                     <artifactId>maven-install-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.1.3</version>
+                    <version>3.1.4</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
@@ -242,7 +249,7 @@
                         <dependency>
                             <groupId>com.puppycrawl.tools</groupId>
                             <artifactId>checkstyle</artifactId>
-                            <version>10.21.1</version>
+                            <version>10.22.0</version>
                         </dependency>
                     </dependencies>
                 </plugin>
@@ -281,7 +288,7 @@
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.sonarsource.scanner.maven</groupId>
                     <artifactId>sonar-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>5.0.0.4389</version>
+                    <version>5.1.0.4751</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
diff --git a/tests/pom.xml b/tests/pom.xml
index 702a6dd9..d9226377 100644
--- a/tests/pom.xml
+++ b/tests/pom.xml
@@ -84,7 +84,6 @@
                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                 <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
                 <configuration>
-                    <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
                     <failIfNoTests>false</failIfNoTests>
                     <argLine>-Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m</argLine>
                     <systemPropertyVariables>