Monday, March 29, 2010

James Bond on Facebook?

007 movie introHaving battled Islamic extremists, Irish Republican terrorists and Russian agents, some veteran spies are being defeated by a foe they cannot master: information technology.
Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, Craig: Bond...James Bond!The fictional James Bond kept up-to-date with the latest gadgets, but older real-life spies have been warned they face redundancy if they fall behind with technology. Britain's MI5 Security Service is launching a round of redundancies to improve the overall level of computer skills among its staff. It is instead hiring new intelligence officers with a better grasp of information technology and other "deployable" skills: 007 on Facebook perhaps?
MI5 is concerned its overall IT skills are not up to scratch, leading to the redundancy of some employees. Only a small proportion will be affected, but redundancies will be across the board and not just with IT specialists.
With a move back towards on-the-ground eyes-and-ears human intelligence-gathering, MI5's current 3,500 officers will grow to 4,100 by next year, double its 2001 size. Many of the new recruits are in their 20s and 30s attracted by high-profile advertising campaigns and – in part – the excellent BBC drama Spooks.

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