Could the next James Bond be found on Facebook? Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, hopes so after launching a series of advertisements this month to recruit employees, according to a report in Britain's Guardian newspaper on Monday.
MI6, which operates networks of agents in foreign countries, confirmed in the report that Facebook is one of a number of public channels it's using as a recruiting tool.
Three advertisements for MI6 pop up when users communicate with one another, the paper went on to note. One notes, "Graduates of all ages can develop long-term careers as operational officers, collecting and analyzing global intelligence."
Another asks "A career in world events? Help influence world events, protect the UK. Operational officer roles collecting and analyzing global intelligence."
A video on the Facebook MI6 site provides an overview of the administrator roles available at the organization and provides an online test of an applicant's skills.
Nick O'Neill, a blogger at All Facebook, said that the strategy could theoretically provide extremely targeted advertisements to recruit foreign nationals as well.
Thanks to Facebook's extremely high profile targeting capabilities, recruiters have jumped on the opportunity to promote new jobs," he added. "Companies have been testing out Facebook's targeting capabilities over the past year, but many have said that it is still challenging to spend a lot of money on the ad platform. One advertisement that probably didn't experience low click-thru rates was MI6's advertisement to be come a spy for the agency."
Facebook in August quietly launched a new type of advertisement aimed at helping to find a way for advertisers to profit from the treasure trove of demographic and other data it gathers from its members.
The new, so-called Engagement Advertisements encourage Facebook users to interact with ads by leaving comments or sharing virtual gifts with other members.
Facebook, which has grown by 153 percent in the past year to dominate the social networking landscape, also is being eyed by businesses for different applications within the enterprise.
Discover how SOA can create smarter outcomes for your business.
Attend and learn:
- How SOA is helping leading companies to become more agile
- Where you should be applying SOA processes in your company
- The top SOA implementation mistakes to avoid
Click here for more information.
- +
Computerworld Live Podcast #97: The Future of Enterprise Networking 25/07/2008 09:45:36
This week CW Live chats with Mark Thompson, global sales and marketing manager for HP ProCurve, on the future of the enterprise networking. Mark discusses the trends we can expect to see in the near future and how the right infrastructure can ensure your enterprise network is secure. - +
Computerworld Live Podcast #96: Security at the Edge 11/06/2008 09:22:22
CW Live speaks with Amol Mitra, HP ProCurve Director of Marketing for Asia Pacific and Japan. Today's topic: how enterprises are starting to shift away from simply controlling security via server logins, firewalls and moving to more adaptive security frameworks. - +
Data Management Edition #10: Multi-Petascale Systems 02/05/2008 09:12:33
This week we look at sustainability and the development of multicore technologies to build multi-petascale systems. - +
IT Security Edition #11: How to poison the Storm botnet 01/05/2008 08:51:55
This week CW Live presents a case study on how to poison the notorious Storm botnet . Plus we take a look at Cisco's plans for Ironport. - +
IT Security Edition #10: Cyber-battles fought and won 24/04/2008 11:09:47
Vendors bow to end user pressure to improve product security, and we take a look at the latest concepts shaping the cyber-battlefield of the future.
Fortinet November Threatscape Report Shows Calm Before Holiday Storm 2008-12-05 16:00:00+11
Epicor® Cited as an Order Management Solutions Leader by Independent Research Firm 2008-12-05 15:52:00+11
F-Secure: Growth In Internet Crime Calls For Growth In Punishment 2008-12-05 13:00:00+11
International researchers gather in Sydney to preview the clever web 2008-12-05 09:48:00+11
Borderless corporate networks to shift focus to secure content management in Australia in 2009 2008-12-04 16:06:00+11
Everything you need to know about email and web security (but were afraid to ask)
What you don’t know can destroy your business. It’s hard to imagine modern business without the internet but in the last few years it has become fraught with danger. Read on to discover how internet security can give your business a competitive advantage.












