As the threat from foreign hackers ramps up, GCHQ needs more cyber specialists.
GCHQ, one of the UK’s spy agencies, is having trouble hiring new talent because big tech firms can pay up to five times more.
As the threat from foreign hackers ramps up, the agency needs more cyber specialists to counteract attacks on the government and critical infrastructure.
The agency fell short of its recruitment targets by 22% in 2016, but said the problem could partly be solved by speeding up its vetting process.
The UK’s surveillance agency, GCHQ, is having trouble recruiting new spies, because current and potential spooks want to take better-paid jobs at big tech firms such as Apple, Google, and Facebook.
We first saw the news via Quartz.
A December report from the government’s security services watchdog, the Intelligence and Security Committee, cited GCHQ representatives who said big tech firms could offer “four or five times more” for cyber and security specialists than the agency could.
Tech: Britain is having trouble recruiting new spies because Facebook and Google pay ‘five times more’
