Germany’s foreign intelligence service has launched a recruitment drive for gamers as it seeks a new generation of tech-savvy secret agents to “hack back” against Russia.
Аgents from the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the German equivalent of Britain’s MI6, will attend the world’s largest video game festival to recruit young spies.
BND officials said there was a “significant overlap” between the skills possessed by gaming fans and those the agency needs to retaliate against Russian hackers targeting critical infrastructure in Germany.
The recruiting operation, at Gamescom 2026 in Cologne, is part of a historic rearmament drive in Germany that seeks to turn the once-toothless BND into a rival of MI6 and Mossad.