NASA cybercrime investigators are looking into the theft of militarily significant design documents pertaining to the next generation of reusable space vehicles.

The documents, which are restricted under current export laws from being shared with foreign nationals or governments and are also strictly controlled under the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (ITAR), were obtained by Computerworld from a hacker who claims to be based in Latin America.

The documents were authored by contractors from The Boeing Co. and a joint venture between East Hartford, Pratt & Whitney and Aerojet. All of the vendors also labeled the documents "competition sensitive," and while it is not yet clear whether sensitive data on military and commercial technologies may have been compromised, defense and intelligence experts said the incident could have both national security and political ramifications.

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