From cloak and dagger to mouse and pad: Mossad recruiting moves online

It used to be that if you wanted to join one of the world's most secretive espionage organisations you had to sneak into a foreign embassy, answer a cryptic newspaper ad or show up in a nondescript building in Tel Aviv to meet a shadowy recruiter. Now all it takes to apply for a job at Israel's Mossad spy agency is a click of the mouse.

The typically shadowy Mossad revamped its website last week to include a snazzy recruiting video and an online application option for those seeking employment.

With versions in Hebrew, English, French, Russian, Arabic and Farsi, the sleek site looks to revolutionise the way Israel's legendary agency seeks out potential agents after generations of backdoor, cloak-and-dagger antics.

"We must continue to recruit the best people into our ranks so that the Mossad might continue to lead, defend and allow for the continued existence of the state of Israel," Mossad chief Tamir Pardo said in a statement announcing the launch. "The Mossad's qualitative human capital is the secret of our success."

Mossad, Hebrew for "The Institute", is short for the "Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations". It is the global arm of Israel's vaunted intelligence community and believed to be behind some of the most daring counterterrorism covert operations of the past century. Only a few have come to light, such as the killing of the leaders of Black September - the Palestinian group behind the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games - and Israeli assassinations across Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

There's more to Mossad than its James Bond aura, however, and you are more likely to land a job in its technology, cyber- or administration departments than you are to become an international man - or woman - of mystery. But the site alludes to its secretive nature with a video showing satellites and drones hovering, as well as men and women dressed in suits hacking into computers and carrying out surveillance operations.