Maven Build Failure due Plugin Dependency - maven

Question

I've read the following previous answers to similar topics, but none have worked for me.
Here is what I've tried:
Plugin org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-clean-plugin:2.5 or one of its dependencies could not be resolved
Maven Build Failure - failure to find plugins
The first link doesn't really apply because I'm not using a proxy, but I did check the settings.xml file for other possibilities. I can download directly by going to the plugin .jar file.
The second link might apply, but I have no idea what they mean by: "change user settings to point out to correct settings.xml and to your repository folder should exist in your system." I don't know how to do this and am not sure which repository they are referring to and how I find out. I'm looking only at my Maven settings.xml file.
So here's my errors
C:\cas-overlay-template-master>mvn package install
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building cas-overlay 1.0
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Downloading: https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-compiler-plugin/3.3/maven-compiler-plugin-3.3.jar
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 5.965 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2017-03-21T23:42:13-04:00
[INFO] Final Memory: 7M/97M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] Plugin org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:3.3 or one of its dependencies could not be resolved: Could not transfer artifact org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:jar:3.3 from/to central (https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unexpected error: java.security.InvalidAlgorithmParameterException: the trustAnchors parameter must be non-empty -> [Help 1]
[ERROR]
[ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch.
[ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
[ERROR]
[ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/PluginResolutionException
My goal is to get CAS 5.0.4 working for a Liferay 7.0ga3, running Tomcat 8, JDK 1.8, and Maven 3. I am a student, have never used any of these technologies except JDK 1.8, so I really need very understandable answers. Not veteran answers for those that should know what they are doing. Thanks

Answer 1

The actual problem here is around the certificates the Maven JVM is trusting:
Unexpected error: java.security.InvalidAlgorithmParameterException:
the trustAnchors parameter must be non-empty
Various things can fix it, but this question has a lot of solutions (and one more here).