{"id":21612,"date":"2015-06-18T05:30:42","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T09:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=21612"},"modified":"2015-06-17T10:12:25","modified_gmt":"2015-06-17T14:12:25","slug":"the-cardinals-hacking-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/06\/the-cardinals-hacking-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cardinals’ hacking scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The St. Louis Cardinals are being accused of hacking into the Houston Astro\u2019s data system.\u00a0 Some are saying that, if true, this has the makings of one of the biggest scandals in baseball history, with the Cardinals facing huge penalties, people getting banned from baseball, and individuals going to jail.<\/p>\n

Jeff Luhnow was an important part of the Cardinals\u2019 brain trust, a data guru who was a master of the statistical analysis that has become dominant in baseball strategy and player evaluation.\u00a0\u00a0 (See Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game<\/a>\"\".)\u00a0 Recently, Luhnow became the general manager of the Houston Astros, where he has worked wonders, transforming a perennial losing team into one of the best performers of the season.\u00a0 Reportedly, someone in the Cardinals\u2019 organization hacked into his old colleague\u2019s account in Houston, using the same passwords he had used on his Cardinals\u2019 account<\/em>!\u00a0 (Lesson:\u00a0 change your passwords.)<\/p>\n

\n

But isn\u2019t this just a minor prank, on a par with stealing signs?\u00a0 After the jump, read details about what apparently happened, as well as a column from Tom Boswell on why this (if true, I hasten to say) is a very big deal.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From The Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Federal authorities are investigating whether officials from the St. Louis Cardinals hacked into the private computer systems of the Houston Astros, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The security breach \u2014 in which Cardinals officials are alleged to have accessed a wide array of proprietary information \u2014 alarmed executives throughout baseball, some of whom characterized the case as potentially among the sport\u2019s worst scandals. Those officials said teams take extraordinary measures to protect information \u2014 including trade discussions, evaluations of players and scouting methods \u2014 and a rival team could gain \u201can extraordinary advantage\u201d by tapping into such a database, one official said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like the Coke formula,\u201d said one former executive, who requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. \u201cYou don\u2019t want Pepsi to have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such information, multiple current and former executives said, could be used in a wide range of ways: to know what players a franchise valued in trades; to learn different scouting methods; to raise a flag about players they hadn\u2019t scouted and might want to get someone to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much proprietary analysis, and the teams that do this sort of thing each have their own magic, secret formula for how they evaluate players, people, systems \u2014 all kinds of things,\u201d one current executive said. \u201cFor another team to have that, for whatever their purposes, is an unbelievable advantage for the other team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The central figure in any machination involving the Cardinals and Astros is Jeff Luhnow, the general manager in Houston who came up as an executive in the St. Louis organization. Even as he helped build the Cardinals\u2019 exceptionally strong scouting and player development departments, Luhnow, who holds an MBA and is a former management consultant, was a divisive figure because of his strident belief in modern statistical analysis. He became the Astros\u2019 general manager following the 2011 season and has overseen a complete organizational overhaul that currently has Houston with one of the best records in the American League.<\/p>\n

A law enforcement source with knowledge of the case said investigators believe someone in the Cardinals organization accessed the Astros\u2019 network by trying passwords that Luhnow used during his tenure in St. Louis. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said it remains unclear who in the Cardinals\u2019 organization committed the act.<\/p>\n

The investigation represents a new level of cheating in sports, one that could result in both criminal charges and punitive measures from Major League Baseball. Obtaining information from a computer without authorization is a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a 1986 federal law that carries penalties ranging from hefty fines to prison sentences of up to 20 years for violators<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From Tom Boswell, Cardinals hacking probe shows knowledge trumps strength and speed in today\u2019s sports \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

No team in the history of American pro sports has ever been in as much trouble \u2014 a legal, ethical and disciplinary nightmare \u2014 as the St. Louis Cardinals are now if an FBI and Department of Justice investigation ultimately proves that members of their front office hacked the computer network of the Houston Astros to steal .\u2009.\u2009. everything.<\/p>\n

Government investigators are probing the Cardinals to see whether their employees hacked into the Astros\u2019 main proprietary baseball brain \u2014 called Ground Control \u2014 which was developed by former St. Louis front office star, and now Houston general manager, Jeff Luhnow.<\/p>\n

If proven true, this could in theory lead to jail sentences for the guilty as well as possible lifetime bans from baseball on \u201cintegrity of the game\u201d grounds. Neither MLB, nor any other major American sport, has a precedent for punishments in such a case because no team has ever attempted such wholesale club-against-club spying, ostensibly in search of a mountain of team secrets.<\/p>\n

But, depending on many variables \u2014 especially who knew and who (if anyone) authorized such theft \u2014 MLB might need to deliver the harshest penalties against any team in the game\u2019s history. This investigation has the potential to make the NFL\u2019s DeflateGate look like a probe into jaywalking.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The St. Louis Cardinals are being accused of hacking into the Houston Astro\u2019s data system.\u00a0 Some are saying that, if true, this has the makings of one of the biggest scandals in baseball history, with the Cardinals facing huge penalties, people getting banned from baseball, and individuals going to jail. Jeff Luhnow was an important […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,43,44],"tags":[3884,975,3885,2874,2076],"class_list":["post-21612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","category-sports","category-technology","tag-cardinals-hacking-scandal","tag-hacking","tag-houston-astros","tag-sports-statistics","tag-st-louis-cardinals"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Cardinals' hacking scandal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The St. Louis Cardinals are being accused of hacking into the Houston Astro's data system.\u00a0 Some are saying that, if true, this has the makings of one of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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