Is Pakistan Outsourcing Its Intelligence Assets?

When former MI6 Legal Director David Bickford appeared on the Talha Ahad Podcast and casually mentioned that:

“both MI6 and MI5 have the most fabulous websites”

for direct recruitment; it wasn’t merely a diplomatic anecdote. For many observers in the intelligence and cybersecurity community; this open endorsement of Western intelligence transparency marks a quiet shift in how recruitment narratives are framed globally.

But here’s where the story turns local; and complex.

The Unblocked Portals and the Digital Gateways

Earlier this year; Evrima Chicago’s editorial head noted a peculiar digital anomaly: the CIA’s official recruitment page (cia.gov/careers) remains unblocked across much of Pakistan’s national internet firewall. This is unusual given that Pakistan’s regulatory filters routinely restrict content from international defense; intelligence; and satellite entities.

Coupled with the MI6 recruitment portal now being highlighted in public discourse through South Asian media channels; including YouTube-accessible discussions like Ahad’s; the situation suggests more than just openness. It hints at an active visibility campaign targeted toward non-Western; English-educated demographics who might meet the criteria for foreign recruitment pipelines.

Outsourcing Intelligence or Externalizing Risk?

The emerging question; and the one worth asking seriously; is whether Pakistan, amid growing internal and external security strain, is outsourcing portions of its intelligence labor force or allowing external partnerships to operate informally within its digital and diasporic ecosystems.

Recent appearances by figures like Kamran Faridi; once tied to U.S. federal investigations and later emerging as a public-facing critic of transnational intelligence dealings; add to this fog of suspicion. Whether Faridi represents an isolated case or a visible byproduct of a deeper outsourcing trend remains unclear. What is clear; however; is that the cultural normalization of intelligence work as “career” content (through podcasts, job portals, and influencer crossovers) has softened the traditional secrecy that defined this field.

Signals in the Noise

For Pakistani watchers; these signals are difficult to ignore. The MI6 recruitment website may have once been a British domestic tool; now; its algorithmic reach extends globally through indexed search results and social engagement. The CIA’s career listings; too; are not just visible but accessible — even promoted on platforms frequented by South Asian professionals in tech; law; and cybersecurity.

The plausible — if not yet proven — inference is that Pakistan’s intelligence ecosystem is being quietly mapped; influenced; and potentially recruited from without; under the broader rubric of globalization; remote partnerships; and “open intelligence careers.”

A Policy Blind Spot or Strategic Realignment?

If these digital channels remain unregulated and unmonitored; it raises policy-level questions in Islamabad:

• Is Pakistan aware of the potential soft recruitment taking place online?
• Has outsourcing intelligence become a cost-saving or deniability measure?
• Or is this a symptom of broader hybrid warfare; where human intelligence (HUMINT) and digital access points blur into one continuous recruitment funnel?

Until these questions are addressed; the line between openness and exposure will continue to fade.

The views expressed by Susan Baker are her own and do not necessarily represent the institutional stance of Evrima Chicago.And given the extensive historical record — as well as Susan’s own experience observing inter-agency operations — it’s evident that intelligence services often share data about their assets under varying pretexts: sometimes as gestures of diplomatic goodwill, and at other times as leverage during negotiations. In such an environment, one has to exercise exceptional caution; information, once exchanged, can become currency in a game that never truly ends.