diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index c2c50f956..c212f7403 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@
   </scm>
 
   <properties>
-    <BUILD_NUMBER></BUILD_NUMBER>
+    <BUILD_NUMBER/>
     <maven.build.timestamp.format>yyyyMMdd-HHmm</maven.build.timestamp.format>
     <build.timestamp>${maven.build.timestamp}</build.timestamp>
     <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@
     <!-- Care must be taken when updating the prometheus client lib version
          since we have some custom optimized extensions to this -->
     <prometheus-version>0.9.0</prometheus-version>
-    <bouncycastle-version>1.74</bouncycastle-version>
+    <bouncycastle-version>1.78</bouncycastle-version>
     <junit-version>5.10.1</junit-version>
 
     <zookeeper-version>3.7.2</zookeeper-version>
@@ -274,7 +274,7 @@
                     </goals>
                   </pluginExecutionFilter>
                   <action>
-                    <ignore></ignore>
+                    <ignore/>
                   </action>
                 </pluginExecution>
               </pluginExecutions>