UK wants hot tech grads to do spy work before building startups

The British government is considering a program that would see the most promising tech graduates spend some time working for the GCHQ signals intelligence agency, the UK’s equivalent to the National Security Agency, before they move into the private sector.

The scheme would give the UK a rough equivalent to the system in Israel, where many tech entrepreneurs have come out of Unit 8200 of the Israel Defence Force. Unit 8200 is also a signals intelligence operation, and the cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks is a notable spinout. The idea would be to capitalize on the expertise in GCHQ in terms of IT commercialization by creating a secure space where business can work with GCHQ and build an eco-system between the two. In short, part of the attraction lies in the idea of making money out of GCHQ’s in-house spy tech.