Shoreditch spies: why does GCHQ want to hire hipsters?

The spy agency's use of stencil graffiti recruitment adverts in trendy east London reveals their struggle against not just bad guys, but cooler employers

David Cameron's response to the Paris attacks was swift. At the G20 summit in Turkey he previewed the forthcoming defence and security review, which will promise to recruit 1,900 more intelligence officers for MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. Easier said than done, however. Because these days hiring spies is maybe the hardest part of spying.

Indeed at GCHQ, which monitors enemy communications and protects British data, the recruitment drive was already underway. Since last Monday the streets of Britain have been sprayed with a cryptic message: "GCH-Who? Technical Opportunities gchq-careers.co.uk". The words appeared on pavements in Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Wolverhampton and Shoreditch - not sprayed in paint, but washed out of the street's own grime with a stencil and a pressure hose.