Cardinals being investigated by FBI for hacking into Astros network

[BobGnarly]

WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. and Justice Department prosecutors are investigating whether front-office officials for the St. Louis Cardinals, one of the most successful teams in baseball over the past two decades, hacked into internal networks of a rival team to steal closely guarded information about player personnel.

Investigators have uncovered evidence thatCardinals officials broke into a network of theHouston Astros that housed special databases the team had built, according to law enforcement officials. Internal discussions about trades, proprietary statistics and scouting reports were compromised, the officials said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/s...rdinals-hack-astros-fbi.html?smid=tw-bna&_r=0

 

[Rock Strongo]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/sports/baseball/st-louis-cardinals-hack-astros-fbi.html?_r=0

St. Louis Cardinals Investigated by F.B.I. for Hacking Astros


By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDTJUNE 16, 2015

Photo

Jeff Luhnow, the Houston Astros’ general manager, with Jon Jay, left, and Daniel Descalso of the Cardinals in 2013. CreditJulio Cortez/Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. and Justice Department prosecutors are investigating whether front-office officials for the St. Louis Cardinals, one of the most successful teams in baseball over the past two decades, hacked into internal networks of a rival team to steal closely guarded information about player personnell.

• Investigators have uncovered evidence that Cardinals officials broke into a network of the Houston Astrosthat housed special databases the team had built, according to law enforcement officials. Internal discussions about trades, proprietary statistics and scouting reports were compromised, the officials said.
  
  The officials did not say which employees were the focus of the investigation or whether the team’s highest-ranking officials were aware of the hacking or authorized it. The investigation is being led by the F.B.I.’s Houston field office and has progressed to the point that subpoenas have been served on the Cardinals and Major League Baseball for electronic correspondence.
  
  Photo
  
  
  
  The Houston Astros hired Luhnow as general manager in December 2011. Before then he had been a successful and polarizing executive with the Cardinals.CreditDavid J. Phillip/Associated Press
  The attack represents the first known case of corporate espionage in which a professional sports team has hacked the network of another team. Illegal intrusions into companies’ networks have become commonplace, but it is generally conducted by hackers operating in foreign countries, like Russia and China, who steal large tranches of data or trade secrets for military equipment and electronics.
  
  Major League Baseball “has been aware of and has fully cooperated with the federal investigation into the illegal breach of the Astros’ baseball operations database,” a spokesman for baseball’s commissioner, Rob Manfred, said in a written statement.
  
  The Cardinals officials under investigation have not been put on leave, suspended or fired. The commissioner’s office is likely to wait until the conclusion of the government’s investigation to determine whether to take disciplinary action against the officials or the team.
  
  The case is a rare mark of ignominy for the Cardinals, one of the sport’s most revered and popular organizations. The team has the best record in baseball this season (42-21), regularly commands outsize television ratings and has reached the National League Championship Series nine times since 2000. The Cardinals, who last won the World Series in 2011, have 11 titles over all, second only to the Yankees.
  
  Their owner, Bill DeWitt, is a highly regarded executive who last year was in charge of the search committee for a new commissioner to replace the retiring Bud Selig.
  
  Law enforcement officials believe the hacking was executed by vengeful front-office employees for the Cardinals hoping to wreak havoc on the work of Jeff Luhnow, the Astros’ general manager who had been a successful and polarizing executive with the Cardinals until 2011.
  
  From 1994 to 2012, the Astros and the Cardinals were division rivals, in the National League. For a part of that time, Mr. Luhnow was a Cardinals executive, primarily handling scouting and player development. One of many innovative thinkers drawn to the sport by the “Moneyball” phenomenon, he was credited with building baseball’s best minor league system, as well as drafting several players who would become linchpins of the Cardinals’ 2011 World Series-winning team.
  
  The Astros hired Mr. Luhnow as general manager in December 2011, and he quickly began applying his unconventional approach to running a baseball team. In an exploration of the team’s radical transformation, Bloomberg Business called it “a project unlike anything baseball has seen before.”
  
  Under Mr. Luhnow, the Astros have accomplished a striking turnaround; they are in first place in the American League West division. But in 2013, before their revival at the major league level, their internal deliberations about statistics and players were compromised, law enforcement officials said.
  
  The intrusion did not appear to be sophisticated, the law enforcement officials said. When Mr. Luhnow was with the Cardinals, the organization built a computer network, called Redbird, to house all of their baseball operations information — including scouting reports and player personnel information. After leaving to join the Astros, and bringing some front-office personnel with him from the Cardinals, Houston created a similar program known as Ground Control.
  
  Ground Control contained the Astros’ “collective baseball knowledge,” according to a Bloomberg Business article published last year. The program took a series of variables and “weights them according to the values determined by the team’s statisticians, physicist, doctors, scouts and coaches,” the article said.
  
  Investigators believe Cardinals officials, concerned that Mr. Luhnow had taken their idea and proprietary baseball information to the Astros, examined a master list of passwords used by Mr. Luhnow and the other officials who had joined the Astros when they worked for the Cardinals. The Cardinals officials are believed to have used those passwords to gain access to the Astros’ network, law enforcement officials said.
  
  Last year, some of the information was posted anonymously online, according to an article on Deadspin. Among the details that were exposed were trade discussions that the Astros had with other teams. Mr. Luhnow was asked at the time whether the breach would affect how he dealt with other teams. “Today I used a pencil and paper in all my conversations,” he said.
  
  Believing that the Astros’ network had been compromised by a rogue hacker, Major League Baseball notified the F.B.I., and the authorities in Houston opened an investigation. Agents soon found that the Astros’ network had been entered from a computer at a home that some Cardinals officials had lived in. The agents then turned their attention to the team’s front office.
  

 

[Rock Strongo]

mine was here first

 

[Clayton]

tl;dr

Old Cardinals exec went to the Astros, didn't change his password, Cardinals employees got in.

There should be penalties and firings but Im not really sure this has changed the direction of either team unlike the Bucs knowing the Raiders signs in the Super Bowl.

 

[Fountain City Blues]

Well, this should be fun to see how this one plays out.

 

[Rock Strongo]

Well, this should be fun to see how this one plays out.

no shit!

 

[Rock Strongo]

25% of the season suspension for everyone!

loss of a first round pick

million dollar fine

 

[element1286]

Um, yikes. Whether or not it affected any outcomes of games is immaterial. Stealing passwords and hacking other teams systems is as unethical as it gets.

 

[Rock Strongo]

someone get ted wells on the phone...

 

[Clayton]

Its some ex-gf stalking stuff right here

I still think the guy is an idiot for not changing his password but by having the Cardinals hack him he can claim credit for both teams. There should be firings at the very least. Some fines, too, and probably penalties but its a self correcting problem if the Cardinals have bad data now.

 

[Rock Strongo]

Its some ex-gf stalking stuff right here

I still think the guy is an idiot for not changing his password but by having the Cardinals hack him he can claim credit for both teams. There should be firings at the very least. Some fines, too, and probably penalties but its a self correcting problem if the Cardinals have bad data now.

this is gonna be super interesting.

 

[Clayton]

this is gonna be super interesting.

Its not nearly as interesting as players who cheat. From an analytics standpoint its pretty meaningful though if this changed the Cardinals drafting patterns

 

[Rock Strongo]

Its not nearly as interesting as players who cheat. From an analytics standpoint its pretty meaningful though if this changed the Cardinals drafting patterns

most definitely.

 

[cerealboi]

2011 *

2006 *

 

[Rock Strongo]

2011 *

2006 *

 

[Clayton]

2011 *

2006 *

I swear Boston fans are all 12

 

[cerealboi]

I swear Boston fans are all 12

There's a clown in your fanbase base that a mere mention of the 2002 superbowl and he starts crying about spygate (even though that relates to an entirely different incident). You're just going to have to put on your big boy pants and deal with it. This is how the sports message board rolls.

 

[Clayton]

There's a clown in your fanbase base that a mere mention of the 2002 superbowl and he starts crying about spygate (even though that relates to an entirely different incident). You're just going to have to put on your big boy pants and deal with it. This is how the sports message board rolls.

The Pats won the Super Bowl against the Rams because the NFL didnt call defensive holding back then. I doubt it had much to do with spygate and more to do with none of the receivers getting any separation. I also think the Rams got slightly overrated because they made Favre look really stupid in the NFCC game which apparently wasnt as hard as we thought it was at the time.

The devil is going to be in the details in this. The Cardinals have been drafting better than any team in baseball and they already got hit with their best young player dying last year and their 2nd best getting traded to the Braves. There should be fines and firings. I think if the hacking was rampant than getting rid of a draft pick or two could send the team way back.

 

[Rock Strongo]

I swear Boston fans are all 12

i swear all formerly LA rams fans are all marshall faulk, crying on TV every time the pats win another superbowl.

 

[cerealboi]

"The Cards always seem to have a great farm system even though they consistently make the playoffs and rarely have high draft picks. How do they do it?"



I guess we now know.