Could your VPN skills turn you into the next James Bond?

If you're looking for a new career, your expertise with a VPN could be enough to get you listening in on enemy communications and dropping messages to double agents. We all like feeling like expert hackers when we bypass annoying geo-restrictions with a VPN, and, for someone, there'll be a genuine opportunity in that.

Sir Richard Moore, retiring chief of the UK's foreign intelligence agency, has announced a new recruitment portal for MI6 on the dark web. So, in order to safely access the site, you'll need to use a VPN. But, before you grab one of the best VPNs, it's time to calm those thoughts of skydiving without a parachute or getting involved in international love affairs and consider the realities of modern spycraft.

The portal, Silent Courier, has been launched following an increase in UK defense spending to help combat the threat posed by Russian and Chinese cyber attacks. Moore is keen to welcome new operatives, launching the portal with these words: "Today we're asking those with sensitive information on global instability, international terrorism or hostile state intelligence activity to contact MI6 securely online. Our virtual door is open to you."

If you're adept at using a VPN, then maybe you're on the path to a role that Sir Richard Moore describes as "critical to calibrating risk and informing decisions." So you're looking less at parkour across a South American carnival and more at sitting behind a desk, assessing risks. It's essentially an analyst position… which, if you know your 007 movies, recalls GoldenEye: "Are these the same analysts who said that GoldenEye couldn't exist? Who said the helicopter posed no threat and wasn't worth following?"

No, you're not going to be driving a Lotus Esprit S1 off a jetty or going into orbit to combat a power-hungry villain intent on killing all life on Earth. But, hey, desk jockies are important too, and this is a good opportunity for anyone with a keen interest in cyber security.

If you're thinking about applying for this position, make sure you have a reliable VPN installed and enabled. On the dark web in particular, it is vital to have a VPN to protect your privacy because you never know which sites might be trying to steal as much data from you as they can.

Just make sure you can keep a secret. Speaking of which, we've got some of our own to let you in on… Read our Minecraft VPN and Warzone VPN guides to get an idea of how a VPN can enhance your in-game experience.