diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index e4505d6afbcf..43520b2f76fa 100755
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -829,6 +829,14 @@
             <xmlOutput>true</xmlOutput>
             <effort>Max</effort>
           </configuration>
+          <dependencies>
+          <!-- overwrite dependency on spotbugs if you want to specify the version of spotbugs -->
+            <dependency>
+              <groupId>com.github.spotbugs</groupId>
+              <artifactId>spotbugs</artifactId>
+              <version>${spotbugs.version}</version>
+            </dependency>
+          </dependencies>
         </plugin>
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
@@ -1687,8 +1695,8 @@
     <maven.project.info.report.version>2.9</maven.project.info.report.version>
     <os.maven.version>1.5.0.Final</os.maven.version>
     <findbugs-annotations.version>1.3.9-1</findbugs-annotations.version>
-    <spotbugs.version>3.1.12</spotbugs.version>
-    <spotbugs.maven.version>3.1.12.2</spotbugs.maven.version>
+    <spotbugs.version>4.2.1</spotbugs.version>
+    <spotbugs.maven.version>4.2.0</spotbugs.maven.version>
     <surefire.version>3.0.0-M4</surefire.version>
     <wagon.ssh.version>2.12</wagon.ssh.version>
     <xml.maven.version>1.0.1</xml.maven.version>