Bernard Squarcini was head of the French Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur (English: General Directorate for Internal Security) from 2 July 2008 to 30 May 2012.

[3] Squarcini was instrumental in the 2003 arrest of Yvan Colonna, the alleged murderer of prefect Claude Érignac.

In February 2004 he was appointed deputy prefect for security and defence in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.

[4] On 1 July 2008 the DST and the DCRG merged, becoming the Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur (DCRI; English: General Directorate for Internal Security).

[7] In November 2013, Squarcini published Renseignements français : nouveaux enjeux along with Etienne Pellot, in which he described his vision for a reform of the French intelligence services and a law to structure the intelligence activity, as well as measures to fight against Islamic extremism.