Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

INTELLIGENCE

France to recruit a new generation of tech savvy spies

France is recruiting hundreds of spies who must speak fluent English and know their way around a computer.

Published: 14 February 2017 14:45 CET

France to recruit a new generation of tech savvy spies

Photo: AFP

Faced with intensified terrorist threats and cyber attacks, France's external intelligence services the DGSE (La Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure) are on the hunt for hundreds of new agents.

The DGSE is to reinforce its team with 600 new spies between now and 2019 to bring them to a total of 7000 agents – far below the estimated 21,000 employed by the CIA.

While Hollywood has lead us to think the perfect spy is one with an athletic body that can jump across rooftops and down baddies with an array of gadgets, the DGSE are searching for a different kind of spy.

Ideally one who knows their way around a computer and the internet. As well as tech whizzkids the French intelligence services are also looking for linguists, engineers and analysts preferably straight out of university.

The head of the DSGE, Bernard Bajolet, spoke to students at the National School of Administration at Strasbourg this week to try to stir up some interest and attract some of the brightest brains in the country.

Apart from the possibility of becoming France’s next Jacques Bond, students were enticed with a starting salary of between €33,000 and €35,000.

Hopeful candidates will apply to their specialist pathway: the tech-savvy will need to prove they can hack systems and decrypt codes, while linguists will have to show they can speak not only French and fluent English, but also increasingly required languages Russian, Arabic, or Chinese.

Danish PM sees 'no need to restore relations' with France and Germany over spying

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen made her comments at the closing debate of parliament. Photo: Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix

In her first remarks on the subject since the revelations emerged on Sunday, Mette Frederiksen refused to address the claims directly.

But as a general rule, “there should not be any systematic surveillance of allies”, she told reporters.

In an investigative report on Sunday, Danish public broadcaster Danmarks Radio (DR) and other European media outlets said the US National Security Agency (NSA) had eavesdropped on Danish underwater internet cables from 2012 to 2014.

They spied on top politicians in France, Germany, Norway and Sweden, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Reports of allies spying on each other have surfaced ever since the Snowden affair in 2013, and after these latest revelations Paris, Berlin and other European capitals on Monday demanded answers from Denmark.

READ ALSO:

Frederiksen played down the damage done to Denmark’s relations with its allies.

“We have a good dialogue,” she said. “I don’t think it’s correct to say that there’s a need to repair relations with France or Germany. We have an ongoing dialogue, which includes the field of intelligence,” she said.

According to DR, the NSA got access to text messages, telephone calls and internet traffic including searches, chats and messaging services — including those of Germany’s Merkel, then-foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and then-opposition leader Peer Steinbruck.

It remains unclear whether Denmark knew at the time that the US was using the cables to spy on Denmark’s neighbours. Washington has yet to comment publicly on the matter.

DR’s revelations are based on a classified, internal report written by a working group at Denmark’s military intelligence unit FE.

The report, submitted to FE management in May 2015, was commissioned by FE after the Snowden affair came to light — which suggests Denmark may not have been aware the US was using its cables to spy on its neighbours.

Five years later, in August 2020, several top FE directors were removed from their posts, a move DR said was linked to the US spying.

Url copied to clipboard!