An employee of a satellite maker illegally accessed a National Space Development Agency computer system and spied on classified data about a rival firm's technology, NASDA officials said Thursday.
The NEC Toshiba Space Systems Ltd. employee cracked a password and accessed the data of Mitsubishi Electric Corp. on Dec. 12, the officials said.
The Yokohama-based NEC-Toshiba joint venture competed with Mitsubishi Electric for a contract to develop a high-speed Internet satellite scheduled for launch in 2005. Both won the order, with each working on separate parts of the project.