Cardinals St. Louis Cardinals front office under FBI investigation for hacking - Page 14

ReynardMuldrake · 06-16-2015, 09:19 AM

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

Investigators have uncovered evidence that Cardinals officials broke into a network of the Houston 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.

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.

The Houston Astros hired Luhnow as general manager in December 2011. Before then he had been a successful and polarizing executive with the Cardinals. Credit David 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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/sp...id=tw-bna&_r=0

**BigRedChief** · 06-17-2015, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kcfanXIII

Ok, maybe card fans are capable of handling this with out sounding like they love the smell of their own farts.

and also

This is looking like some low level 20 somethings wanted to embarrass their former boss or something like that out of spite/hatred.

I see tech security doors open all the time in my travels in I.T. I don't enter them not because its illegal but just not interested. Seems to me to be voyeurism, some kind of virtual standing outside a house and peeking in through a window. So many young people in the field just can't resist the opportunity.

If it turns out that is what happened, its still the Cardinals brass fault. They allowed this old school vs new school camps to fight against and flourish for years.

bdj23 · 06-17-2015, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

and also

This is looking like some low level 20 somethings wanted to embarrass their former boss or something like that out of spite/hatred.

I see tech security doors open all the time in my travels in I.T. I don't enter them not because its illegal but just not interested. Seems to me to be voyeurism, some kind of virtual standing outside a house and peeking in through a window. So many young people in the field just can't resist the opportunity.

If it turns out that is what happened, its still the Cardinals brass fault. They allowed this old school vs new school camps to fight against and flourish for years.

Remember last October when I used your password to MLB.TV?

l33t h4x

kcfanXIII · 06-17-2015, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

and also

This is looking like some low level 20 somethings wanted to embarrass their former boss or something like that out of spite/hatred.

I see tech security doors open all the time in my travels in I.T. I don't enter them not because its illegal but just not interested. Seems to me to be voyeurism, some kind of virtual standing outside a house and peeking in through a window. So many young people in the field just can't resist the opportunity.

If it turns out that is what happened, its still the Cardinals brass fault. They allowed this old school vs new school camps to fight against and flourish for years.

Pretty much how I view it. It is just extra fun that it is happening to the Lou. I will be floored if it comes back to the higher ups, and I really don't know that MLB should punish them at all unless they have absolute proof it goes to the top. JMO.

Chief Roundup · 06-18-2015, 01:45 PM

So the Cardinals have basically been cleared of any wrong doing beyond having some ****tard working in low level management.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/18/sp...ives.html?_r=0

Quote:

ST. LOUIS — High-level executives of the St. Louis Cardinals were not involved in the hacking of the Houston Astros’ database, a lawyer whose firm was hired by the team to perform a review said Wednesday.

The Cardinals said they had retained the firm, Dowd Bennett, for the review several months before it was disclosed this week that the F.B.I. was investigating whether the team had hacked into the database, which is used to track players and prospects.

“With what we have done so far, I am 100 percent confident that this does not touch upper management,” the lawyer, Jim Martin, said. He added that he was sure the hacking did not involve people like John Mozeliak, the team’s general manager, or Bill DeWitt Jr., its chairman.

Mr. Martin said he was retained in February.

There has been no indication of how many employees might be under investigation, and Mr. Martin’s comments were the first to suggest that any wrongdoing could be limited to the lower levels of the Cardinals’ organization.
Continue reading the main story
Related Coverage

Hacking Inquiry Finds a Trail Despite Efforts to Cover It UpJUNE 17, 2015
Jeff Luhnow, the Houston Astros’ general manager, with Jon Jay, left, and Daniel Descalso of the Cardinals in 2013.
Cardinals Investigated for Hacking Into Astros’ DatabaseJUNE 16, 2015
General Manager John Mozeliak on Tuesday. It is unknown how much the Cardinals would have benefited from a hacking.
On Baseball: If Cardinals Hacked, Their Gamesmanship Crossed the LineJUNE 16, 2015

“These are serious allegations that don’t reflect who we are as an organization,” Mr. DeWitt said. “We are committed to getting to the bottom of this matter as soon as possible, and if anyone within our organization is determined to be involved in anything inappropriate, they will be held accountable.”

The internal investigation is not finished. Mr. DeWitt said the law firm was also helping the team give information to the federal government.

**gblowfish** · 06-18-2015, 01:51 PM

This was sent to me by one of my St. Louis pals...

bdj23 · 06-18-2015, 02:19 PM

Dat narrative tho

seaofred · 06-18-2015, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chief Roundup

So the Cardinals have basically been cleared of any wrong doing beyond having some ****tard working in low level management.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/18/sp...ives.html?_r=0

So a lawyer that is being paid by the Cardinals is saying they are innocent? Never heard that before.

**Anyong Bluth** · 06-18-2015, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seaofred

So a lawyer that is being paid by the Cardinals is saying they are innocent? Never heard that before.

/oj

Lex Luthor · 06-19-2015, 06:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hootie 2.0

this is a contradiction

a great front office doesn't hire a god awful manager -- unless, of course, your great front office realizes managing is no longer about X's and O's as much as it is about managing the clubhouse

so you can't have it both ways

why would a great front office hire a 'god awful manager'?

Does Dayton Moore run a great front office?

He did hire Trey Hillman.

Of course, the answer could be that the Royals front office may be great now, but they weren't back when Moore was hiring Trey Hillman and acquiring players like Yuniesky Betancourt and Mike Jacobs.

**Anyong Bluth** · 07-02-2015, 03:03 PM

Looks like the Cards can't lay it at the feet of low level interns.

Their Director of Scouting, Correa, just got fired for admitting to hacking into the Astros system - well, not hacking but illegally accessing it with the old password.

Certainly means MLB isn't going to treat the situation like before when it was being blamed on rogue interns not truly "affiliated" with the front office.

DJ's left nut · 07-02-2015, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anyong Bluth

Looks like the Cards can't lay it at the feet of low level interns.

Their Director of Scouting, Correa, just got fired for admitting to hacking into the Astros system - well, not hacking but illegally accessing it with the old password.

Certainly means MLB isn't going to treat the situation like before when it was being blamed on rogue interns not truly "affiliated" with the front office.

In fairness, Correa wasn't the director of scouting at the time of the breach. Kantrovitz was; Correa replaced him last December. He was likely still a 'statistical analyst' at the time (hard to say without having the timelines pinned down).

But yeah, that's higher up than I'd have liked to it have been.

Like I said, the paper trail's pretty obvious on this one. Nothing to do now but see where it leads. Heads will roll and punishments will be doled out.

06-16-2015, 09:19 AM
ReynardMuldrake 2 Legit 2 Colquitt Join Date: Sep 2010 Casino cash: $4165754	St. Louis Cardinals front office under FBI investigation for hacking WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. and Justice Department prosecutors are investigating front-office officials for the St. Louis Cardinals, one of the most successful teams in baseball over the past two decades, for hacking into the internal networks of a rival team to steal closely guarded information about player personnel. Investigators have uncovered evidence that Cardinals officials broke into a network of the Houston 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. 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. The Houston Astros hired Luhnow as general manager in December 2011. Before then he had been a successful and polarizing executive with the Cardinals. Credit David 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. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/sp...id=tw-bna&_r=0
Posts: 4,719

06-18-2015, 01:51 PM	#200
gblowfish Be Kind To Your Pets Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Glorious Independence, MO Casino cash: $17596178 VARSITY	This was sent to me by one of my St. Louis pals... Attached Thumbnails
Posts: 40,843

06-18-2015, 02:19 PM	#201
bdj23 In my youth i pray to keep Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Clown World Casino cash: $2499850	Dat narrative tho
Posts: 15,837

07-02-2015, 03:03 PM	#205
Anyong Bluth Deus ambulans inter homines Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Chicago Casino cash: $9649340	Looks like the Cards can't lay it at the feet of low level interns. Their Director of Scouting, Correa, just got fired for admitting to hacking into the Astros system - well, not hacking but illegally accessing it with the old password. Certainly means MLB isn't going to treat the situation like before when it was being blamed on rogue interns not truly "affiliated" with the front office. __________________ Suck it, *beautiful*
Posts: 14,918