GCHQ seeks to increase number of female coders to tackle threats

UK intelligence service funding nano-degree' courses in effort to improve diversity in technology roles

Britain's intelligence services want to boost the number of female coders in their ranks, warning they need to improve diversity to tackle threats ranging from foreign states to child online safety.

GCHQ, the UK's intelligence, security and cyber agency, is funding 14-week nano-degrees" in data and software to help women who might have previously been put off coding to make a career change. The agency celebrates the birthday of Ada Lovelace, the daughter of the poet Lord Byron credited by some as writing the first computer programme in the early 1840s. But in 2022 only a third of staff at the agency are women, and fewer are in technology roles.