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Baseball Team Hacks Another Team's Networks, FBI Investigates

Posted by Soulskill on from the change-your-password dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The St. Louis Cardinals have been one of the better baseball teams over the past several years. The Houston Astros have been one of the worst. Nevertheless, there is evidence that officials for the Cardinals broke into a network maintained by the Astros in order to gain access to "internal discussions about trades, proprietary statistics, and scouting reports." The FBI is now leading an investigation into the breach, and they have served subpoenas to the Cardinals and to Major League Baseball demanding access to electronic correspondence. It's the first known instance of corporate espionage involving a network breach in professional sports. Law enforcement said the intrusion "did not appear to be sophisticated." It seems likely that a personal vendetta against the Astros's general manager is involved.

20 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting by thedonger · · Score: 3, Funny

    Right up until the point you said "baseball." In the title.

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    1. Re:Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Slashdot used to be interesting too. Right up until user ID 1317951

    2. Re:Interesting by halivar · · Score: 5, Informative

      I have it at on good information that it stopped being cool at user ID 535826.

    3. Re:Interesting by istartedi · · Score: 3, Funny

      Uhhh... it was never cool. We're nerds. NERDS!!!

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    4. Re:Interesting by sjames · · Score: 5, Funny

      Get off my lawn you damned kids!

    5. Re:Interesting by halivar · · Score: 3, Funny

      What, I have to Google it myself?

    6. Re:Interesting by Isaac-Lew · · Score: 3, Funny

      I considered not replying to this, then I thought "Oh, well"...

  2. Somebody explain? by jetkust · · Score: 3, Funny

    They used their ex-GM and ex-employee's passwords from their network to access the Astro's network. But why was it so easy to get their passwords in the first place. Isn't this normally not possible?

    1. Re:Somebody explain? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      They used their ex-GM and ex-employee's passwords from their network to access the Astro's network. But why was it so easy to get their passwords in the first place. Isn't this normally not possible?

      Because this:

      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.

      The guy responsible for building a database for the Cardinals then got a job with the Astros (along with other Cardinal employees) basically STOLE the database when he moved. That's why the passwords for him and the other ex Cardinal employees still worked. I'd say the Astros could be in some trouble themselves.

  3. There's no SPYING in BASEBALL!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Said Tom Hanks.

  4. Hmph!!! by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 2

    That's just not cricket!

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  5. Re:MLB is little more than a corporation anyway by stoned_ritual · · Score: 2

    I would postulate that the majority of pro sports organizations are at least as corrupt as the MLB, if not more so.

  6. If it's good enough for the NSA, why not MLB? by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hey, if the NSA gets to violate the Constitution and spy on Americans, why not the MLB?

    Sauce for the goose is great for the gander.

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  7. Smart Sports by jimbolauski · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is science and innovation around all sports, you just have to be bright enough to notice it. Take baseball the batter has to be smart enough to know that the pitcher only throws certain pitches during certain counts and that there are slight differences in the release of different pitches giving the batter a better chance to hit the ball. Same with football you need to have excellent pattern recognition to know what the defense is going to do and what you can do to maximize your teams chance at success. Even something as simple as running has tons of science in it, knowing how hard to train, what type of training, and how fast the person can recover. I didn't even mention the science that goes into clothing and shoes. There are very few dumb jocks that succeed in professional sports, talent alone will not get you to the professional level you need something more.

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    1. Re:Smart Sports by aaron4801 · · Score: 2

      Newsflash: Unless your profession, hobbies and all other interests are based entirely around basic life sustenance, everything you do is pointless.

    2. Re:Smart Sports by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

      That's nice and all. But the bottom line is: using all of that intellect to perform an activity that is stupid and pointless is still a waste. That's another one of those things you just have to be bright enough to notice.

      It's rather ironic that you posted this on Slashdot.

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  8. This is the National League's version of the DH by salahx · · Score: 2

    DH being the Designated Hacker, of course.

  9. Ah baseball by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 2

    A sport invented to make cricket look exciting.

    (No offense intended. I actually like cricket.)

  10. Re:Learned from the Patriots by paiute · · Score: 3, Informative

    Cheating is OK when the reward is championships and the penalty is a wrist slap.

    Found the bitter Colts fan.

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  11. Re:Radio DJ's Astros joke by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

    Sadly, this joke would've worked better last season... says this guy here in Seattle.

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