GCHQ challenges codebreakers in online competition

UK intelligence agency GCHQ has launched an online code cracking competition to raise its profile and attract new web-savvy talent to the counter-espionage sector.

The organisation has invited potential candidates to solve a tricky visual code posted at an unbranded standalone website to gain an interview for a number of available roles.

The code competition is also being "seeded" to social media sites, forums and blogs that people with a "keen interest in code breaking and ethical hacking" may frequent.

GCHQ, which works with spying agencies MI5 and MI6, usually recruits new cyber specialists straight from education. But the organisation feels that the fast-moving world of computer technology means it must tap into the particular expertise of the legions of "self-taught" hackers on the web.

GCHQ said that the campaign is being operated anonymously "in order that applying for a career in the department is not the primary reason for the participant to engage".

"The target audience for this particular campaign is one that may not typically be attracted to traditional advertising methods and may be unaware that GCHQ is recruiting for these kinds of roles," a spokesman said.

"Their skills may be ideally suited to our work and yet they may not understand how they could apply them to a working environment, particularly one where they have the opportunity to contribute so much."

The competition began in secret on November 3 and will continue until December 12. GCHQ warned that anyone found to have illegally hacked the code would not be eligible for recruitment to the agency.

The campaign follows a recent announcement by the government that GCHQ would lend its security expertise to the business sector as part of a new strategy to combat cyber attacks.

GCHQ has employed unusual recruitment tactics in the past, including an ad campaign in online games, including Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent, in 2007 to locate people interested in a "career in British intelligence".

Two years later, the agency also placed video content, themes and downloadable pictures on the Xbox Live network, which appeared during games such as Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed.