STOCKHOLM An unidentified computer hacker has got hold of top secret U.S. computer system codes for guiding space ships, rockets and satellites, a lawyer in Sweden said on Friday.

Computer experts raided the offices of an information technology company in Stockholm last month and found a copy of the source codes for the software program OS/Comet developed by U.S. firm Exigent Software Technology, Johan Starell, legal counsel for exigent in Sweden, told Reuters.

A source code contains full details of how a software program works.

The suspected source codes theft, carried out remotely over the Internet on Christmas Eve last year from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C., was detected on December 27.

(Reuter)