France is making an effort to boost its intelligence community to counter increasing threats at home and abroad. It was announced that, despite France's current economic challenges, the General Directorate for External Security would receive a 13 percent budget increase in order to improve its ability to detect and deter threats France faces at home and abroad.
At the top of the list the agency is planning to establish a new national intelligence academy. It is also planning to add 500 people to its payroll. Those positions would center around linguists, surveillance experts and crypto-mathematicians to counter the evolving and complex threats worldwide. Software experts, surveillance agents. and network engineers are a priority. Said one expert, "a major evolution is underway."
Lest anyone in France not trained in espionage or on the cutting edge of computer technology currently looking for work be discouraged, the agency is also hiring warehouse workers. A successful spy agency needs people to stock chairs and lamps as well as network engineers and exploding pens.
