Report: FBI investigating Cardinals for hacking Astros’ database
It appears the St. Louis Cardinals could be in a whole heap of trouble.
According to the New York Times, the FBI is investigating the organization for allegedly hacking into the Houston Astros’ internal database that housed player personnel information including discussions about trades, proprietary statistics and scouting reports.
While this immediately has drawn comparisons to Spygate and NFL controversies, it may actually be much worse. It’s being called the first case of corporate espionage wherein a pro sports team hacks another’s secure files.
This latest report is connected to the leak of internal Astros documents that surfaced on the web last year. An investigation was launched soon thereafter and in a surprising twist the FBI’s findings led them to the Cardinals:
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.
The man in the crosshairs of the hackers was Astros GM Jeff Luhnow, who worked in player development for the Cardinals before taking the Astros job in December 2011.
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 … 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.
The New York Times report prompted this statement from MLB:
“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. Once the investigative process has been completed by federal law enforcement officials, we will evaluate the next steps and will make decisions promptly.”
The Cardinals also released a statement on the matter:
“The St. Louis Cardinals are aware of the investigation into the security breach of the Houston Astros’ database. The team has fully cooperated with the investigation and will continue to do so. Given that this is an ongoing federal investigation, it is not appropriate for us to comment further.“
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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr
