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23 Nov, 2015 17:37

Hipster spies wanted: GCHQ recruiters trawl Shoreditch

Hipster spies wanted: GCHQ recruiters trawl Shoreditch

The UK agency best known for spying on your smartphone is now looking for bearded recruits with strong opinions about music and a love for cereal cafes. That’s right, GCHQ is recruiting ‘hipsters’ in London’s trendy Shoreditch.

In response to Prime Minister David Cameron’s goal to hire nearly two-thousand new spies, GCHQ used the popular hipster medium of street art around London’s Shoreditch to source a new generation of snoops and spies. 

The agency used ‘clean graffiti’ stencils with a power hose to blast away dirt from London’s filthy footpaths.

The ad reads: “GCH-Who? Technical Opportunities. GCHQ-Careers.co.uk.”

GCHQ confirmed the ads are real and were produced by an outsourced HR company.

“We focus our recruitment on areas which are likely to contain a high proportion of people who we would like to recruit, in this case people with technical skills and experience,” a GCHQ spokesperson told Fortune.

The decision to increase GCHQ’s workforce was announced before the Paris attacks and is the biggest increase in UK security operations since the 7/7 London attacks.

Chancellor George Osborne says the UK cyber security budget is to double to £1.9 billion (US$2.8 billion) by 2020. The 1,900 new recruits will work across GCHQ, MI5 and MI6.

The British intelligence sector is usually the subject of street art rather than its creator.

Banksy created a mural depicting surveillance close to the agency’s Cheltenham headquarters last year. 

RT

Shoreditch, an area once known for its edgy nightlife and fantastic Indian restaurants, has become increasingly gentrified by high-income hipsters working for multinational tech companies.

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