For years, the U.S. intelligence community has warned that cyber attacks from China and other countries are the biggest threat to our national security. Now, some are wondering whether the death of an engineer from California could be linked to cyber espionage.
In 2010, 29-year-old Shane Todd moved to Singapore for an engineering job with a government research firm called the Institute of Micro Electronics or IME.
"He was a young man that wanted an adventure and thought it would be super-cool to live in a foreign country and he really liked it when he first got there," Mary Todd, his mother, recalled.
But 18 months later in June of 2012, Shane Todd was found dead inside his apartment. Police and the coroner believe Todd hanged himself in the bathroom, leaving two suicide notes on his computer. But his family doubts that story.
"We have already gone to Singapore twice now, once to pick up our son's body, and realize that nothing lined up with what were told," Mary Todd said.
The Todd family believes Shane was murdered, but why? Todd's parents says their son was under pressure from his employers at IME to get sensitive technology from the U.S. delivered to China, technology he believed could endanger our national security.
"He started calling us and saying, 'Mom if you don't hear from me every week, email me right away. If I don't call you, call the U.S. Embassy. My life is being threatened,' and that's when he said that he felt he was being asked to compromise U.S. security," his mother said.
His father, Rick Todd, recalled, "I said, 'Shane, if you truly believe that, you need to come home now,' and he said, 'Dad, I can't.'"
Comments