By Ryan Gallagher

A view of Sydney through binoculars in 2005. Courtesy of Mark Nolan/Getty Images

Many employers are facing staff cutbacks amid the current bleak economic climate. But not Australia’s top surveillance agency — it’s recruiting a new batch of spooks while it seeks sweeping new powers to monitor communications.

It was confirmed that the Aussie Attorney-General’s Department wants to give the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization, which is tasked with protecting the country from terrorism and espionage, powers to hack into personal computers and smartphones to plant spyware for the purposes of monitoring “suspected terrorists and other security interests.” (In the United States, the FBI already has these powers.)

Now, a series of job listings recently posted online reveal that ASIO is looking for technically minded people who can help develop new eavesdropping tools. For a salary of up to $94,830 AUSD ($100,000 USD), you could be a “Telecommunications Interception Specialist” or a “Technical Intelligence Specialist” — so long as you have a good working knowledge of how to best snoop on phone calls, emails, and Internet traffic data.

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Source: Future Tense