[NY Times] Cardinals under FBI investigation for hacking Astros

sugrlndkid · Jan 8, 2016

The very fact that the scouting director had this much access tells me...that the Cards need to be punished very harshly.

J.R. · Jan 8, 2016

Former Cardinals executive pleads guilty to hacking Astros computers

A former St. Louis Cardinals executive pleaded guilty Friday to gaining unauthorized access to the Astros' confidential player scouting database, wrapping up an 18-month federal investigation that injected cybercrime into a decades-old rivalry that heretofore had been confined between the white lines of a baseball diamond.

Christopher Correa, 35, of St. Louis, the Cardinals' former director of baseball development, admitted to five counts of unauthorized access of a protected computer and looking at Astros information from 2013-14.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes set Correa's sentencing for April 11 - the day of the 2016 home openers for both the Cardinals and Astros - on the five felony counts, each of which carries a maximum penalty of not more than five years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.

Correa, who was fired by the Cardinals last July after the intrusions into the Astros' "Ground Control" database became public, had no comment as he left the courthouse with his Houston attorney, David Adler.

As he stood before Hughes, however, Correa said, "Yes, your honor, I accept responsibility for my mistakes." He later added, "It was stupid."

Correa, who waived a grand jury hearing to enter his guilty plea, acknowledged in a five-page document filed with the court that he gained unauthorized access to the Astros' database on five occasions between March 24, 2013, and March 10, 2014.

He told Hughes that he logged into the Astros system because he suspected that the Astros under general manager Jeff Luhnow, a former Cardinals employee, were using proprietary data developed by the Cardinals. Correa, in fact, said he determined that the Astros had done so but did not elaborate. When asked by Hughes what action he had taken, Correa said he told his co-workers.

That statement drew a quick rebuttal from Astros general counsel Giles Kibbe, who said, "The Astros refute Mr. Correa's statement that our database contained any information that was proprietary to the St. Louis Cardinals. We have a great amount of respect for (Cardinals owner) Bill DeWitt and the Cardinals organization."

The Astros-Cardinals database case, which ranks as the most prominent example of electronic espionage in sports, mixes the old-fashioned elements of competition inherent in sports, particularly in an industry when employees switch teams frequently on the field and in the front office, with the industry's relatively new emphasis on data analysis to construct teams and the burgeoning growth of hacking and electronic espionage across all aspects of business.

"When you commit unauthorized access of computer information that belongs to companies or businesses and use it for a commercial purpose to steal their property and learn what they are doing, that is a serious federal crime, and we're going to take people to court," said Kenneth Magidson, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas. "And if the information establishes their guilt, they are looking at a felony conviction."

According to the charges filed against Correa, he gained access to the e-mail account of at least one Astros employee and at least two accounts in the Ground Control database, using a password formerly used by a Cardinals employee now employed by the Astros.

Among the information Correa obtained, according to prosecutors, was the Astros rankings for 2013 Major League Baseball draft-eligible players, a weekly digest focused on several top prospects, and proposed signing bonuses for some draft-eligible players.

Correa also intruded into the database during the June 2013 amateur draft to view information on players drafted by the Cardinals and Astros and players who had not been drafted, and he did so again during the July 31, 2013, MLB trade deadline to view notes on Astros trade discussions.

In March 2014, after the Astros had tightened security requirements for their database website, Correa illegally used an Astros e-mail account password that enabled him once more to gain access to Ground Control. On that occasion and others, he viewed about 118 pages on draft prospects, scouting evaluations and details of college and international prospects.

Some of that data was posed online in June 2014, providing the first hint to the Astros that their system had been compromised. It was not until June 2015 that reports by The New York Times first identified officials with the Cardinals, who were longtime rivals with the Astros in the National League before Houston's move to the American League in 2012, as having breached the Astros' system.

Federal prosecutors noted that Correa used software to mask his identity, location and the type of device he used to access the Astros system. The intrusions, they added, resulted in damages totaling $1.7 million to the Astros. That value was determined by prosecutors based on the number of intrusions and the Astros' annual scouting budget.

Correa, who worked for the Cardinals from 2009 through 2015, appeared first on Friday before U.S. Magistrate Mary Milloy, who set bail at $20,000. He initially entered a plea of not guilty but changed the plea to guilty when he appeared before Hughes an hour later.

When Correa said he suspected the Astros of using Cardinals proprietary data in their player evaluation, Hughes said, "You broke into their house to find if they were stealing your stuff."

"Stupid, I know," Correa replied.

Magidson had no comment on Correa's allegations before Hughes that the Astros had improper access to proprietary Cardinals data.

The Cardinals could still face action from baseball commissioner Rob Manfred. MLB said it "will determine what further actions to take after receiving all the relevant information."

Magidson would not speculate on whether Correa will receive jail time but said prosecutors would ask for a complete pre-sentencing report. Hughes will have access to federal sentencing guidelines in the case but is not required to follow them.

Prosecutors, however, agreed that the sentences will be served concurrently. Correa, who told Judge Milloy on Friday that he is currently not employed, also must pay $279,000 in restitution.

The case was investigated by the Cyber Task Force of the FBI office in Houston.
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MLB must hammer St. Louis beyond its checkbook for hacking Astros

The ugliness builds page by page, incident by incident, and by the end of the federal indictment against former St. Louis Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa, this much is obvious: If Major League Baseball doesn't dock the Cardinals draft picks in addition to a seven-figure fine, it is not just tacitly approving the computer crimes to which Correa on Friday pleaded guilty but encouraging similar nefariousness among other teams.

Shock rippled around baseball Friday when authorities released the five-page charging documents that detailed Correa's crimes. In accessing the Astros' proprietary Ground Control database, a repository for player evaluation, he sought draft information before and during the draft, trade information on the day of the trade deadline and, in the grossest breach, broke into an Astros employee's email to retrieve the new URL and password to Ground Control after the Astros had changed both.
As far as sins in baseball go, this exceeds any brushbacks or beanballs, any signs that can be stolen, anything shot subcutaneously through a needle. This is a direct assault on another team's front office, the triumvirate of immoral, unethical and illegal, and no matter where it emanated from on the corporate hierarchy, the punishment needs to be severe.

That it came from the director level – one step down on the organizational chart from general manager John Mozeliak – only adds embarrassment to a team that prides itself on conducting things The Cardinal Way, which presumably does not include vengeance hacking among its chief tenets.

It's bad when the best defense a team can muster is that an employee committed federal crimes in the name of retrieving something that may or may not have been stolen. In court Friday, Correa contended he hacked Ground Control in search of proprietary information Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, a former top Cardinals executive, may have taken with him to Houston – a charge the Astros denied in a statement. Were this a one-time job, that's a reasonable-enough explanation from Correa, even if the action is still wildly illegal.

Of course, this was far from an isolated incident, as the government laid out in its case against Correa, who lawyers believe could serve prison time even with his guilty plea. When an employee left the Cardinals in December 2011 – Luhnow was hired Dec. 8 that year – he turned in his computer and password to Correa. The employee, noted as Employee A in the indictment, used a similar password with the Astros, and Correa gained entry to Ground Control and an email account using it in March 2013.

On March 24, he downloaded an Excel file from Ground Control that ranked every draft-eligible player. He looked at other pages that included notes on trade discussions, what the Astros thought of Cardinals prospects, potential draft bonuses and scouting reports. The final 30 rounds of the draft took place June 8, when Correa accessed Ground Control again – and sorted the list of players by those still undrafted.

Seven weeks later, on July 31 – the day of baseball's non-waiver trade deadline – Correa logged into Ground Control to once again see the Astros' trade discussions. The talks eventually wound up on an anonymous sharing site in June 2014, the Astros' innermost workings laid bare for the world to see.

By then, Correa had pulled his most egregious trick yet. After the Astros changed the URL on Ground Control, Correa logged into the employee's email, found the new URL and default password, and accessed Ground Control once more, at which point he pored over 118 pages of documents, from trade discussions to potential international signings to a plethora of draft information. It was like a guy's ex changing the locks and him stealing her purse so he could get a copy of the new key. And the reason for St. Louis' interest surely went beyond plain curiosity.

In 2014, the Astros had the first pick in the draft and the Cardinals the last pick, meaning every round the Cardinals picked one slot ahead of Houston. As such, knowing the Astros' 2014 draft board, their analytics and scouting departments' favorite players and their scouting evaluations – all of which Correa saw – had great significance.

The legal world sees this as computer crime, plain and simple, and it exists to make such black-and-white cases. The baseball world is different. Even though the court valued the information taken from the Astros at $1.7 million, its potential influence – one successful draft pick alone can be worth tens of millions of dollars, even more – makes that number seem like pennies.

This was a break in trust, and if baseball is concerned enough about fair play to suspend performance-enhancing drug users for half a season, it will hammer the Cardinals well beyond their checkbook. Money is no object for any team these days, and a fine alone wouldn't act as a deterrent. A stand-alone fine may well embolden teams to skirt the rules similarly, knowing that the penalty is tantamount to being lashed with a spaghetti strand.

What speaks to any organization – what especially speaks to one like the Cardinals that have built their team through savvy drafting – is the prospect of losing picks. It's a penalty with legitimate teeth and unquestionable consequences. Take away picks. Take away draft-pool dollars. Take away international-bonus money. Hit them on the field as a consequence for their duplicity off it.

Around the game, as the Schadenfreude reverberates, rivals temper their excitement. They fear the influence of Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr., among the game's most powerful men, will buy St. Louis lenience. This is no time for commissioner Rob Manfred to play favorites, not with the awful message it would send.

The ugliness demands action beyond the norm, and if Manfred is at all balking at delivering it, he need remind himself of a single, simple sentence: One baseball team committed federal crimes against another.
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Major · Jan 8, 2016

Hustle Town said: ↑

Ok. What can the MLB do? This wasn't an intern stealing IP/trade secrets; Correa was the scouting director. Others in the front office had to have known.
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Take away an entire draft class. And/or take everyone they picked in that draft and offer them immediate free agency if they want it.

Major · Jan 8, 2016

K-Low_4_Prez said: ↑

This guy could see up to 20 years in prison... I think what he did was wrong and all but that seems way to extreme. Just ban the guy from baseball and fine him. No need to throw him in jail imo.
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Why do we treat white collar crime differently than blue collar crime? If he literally broke into the Astros' offices and stole $2 million, I don't think there'd be any question of jail time. Why is it different if he used a computer to steal $2 million in trade secrets?

ipaman · Jan 8, 2016

sugrlndkid said: ↑

The very fact that the scouting director had this much access tells me...that the Cards need to be punished very harshly.
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we get to pick any farm player from their system no questions asked.

leroy · Jan 8, 2016

I have the feeling Manfred is not going to punish the Cards appropriately. He'll take their word that Correa was a lone wolf and leave them relatively unscathed. Probably a fine in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and that's it. The Astros will get shafted.

Nook · Jan 8, 2016

leroy said: ↑

I have the feeling Manfred is not going to punish the Cards appropriately. He'll take their word that Correa was a lone wolf and leave them relatively unscathed. Probably a fine in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and that's it. The Astros will get shafted.
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This whole thing is a black eye on the game... So the league will sweep it under the rug. Any loss of draft picks or giving picks to the Astros will only bring more attention.

Who knows, maybe they make the Cardinals give us Oscar Tavares.... Probably about as useful.

mick fry · Jan 8, 2016

So we have the fall guy who faces up to 5 years and up to 250,000 bucks. I'm telling ya if it were the other way around the Astros would be facing far worse punishment as a Team. The Cardinals will walk pretty much scott free because who they are, just watch.

Buck Turgidson · Jan 8, 2016

juicystream said: ↑

I'm sure there are rules like that, but that doesn't mean the rule would necessarily be enforceable (I'm guessing disputes are sent to arbitration).
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Depends on if MLB wants to keep their antitrust exemption or not. I'm guessing they do.

msn · Jan 8, 2016

What are you guys going to do if it comes out that Luhnow or someone else the Astros hired away really did bring proprietary information with them?

bobrek · Jan 8, 2016

mick fry said: ↑

So we have the fall guy who faces up to 5 years and up to 250,000 bucks. I'm telling ya if it were the other way around the Astros would be facing far worse punishment as a Team. The Cardinals will walk pretty much scott free because who they are, just watch.
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He actually faces up to 25 years in prison and 1.25 million in fines. Up to 5 years and $250,000 on each count.

Buck Turgidson · Jan 8, 2016

msn said: ↑

What are you guys going to do if it comes out that Luhnow or someone else the Astros hired away really did bring proprietary information with them?
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Not sure yet. I imagine it would involve some harsh language on the internet, an emoji of some sort, and not much else.

Joe Joe · Jan 8, 2016

msn said: ↑

What are you guys going to do if it comes out that Luhnow or someone else the Astros hired away really did bring proprietary information with them?
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That the information was placed on Ground Control once Correa thought someone was on to him.

Blake · Jan 9, 2016

Buck Turgidson said: ↑

Not sure yet. I imagine it would involve some harsh language on the internet, an emoji of some sort, and not much else.
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10/10 rated response

msn · Jan 9, 2016

Blake said: ↑

10/10 rated response
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indeed!

DoitDickau · Jan 9, 2016

bobrek said: ↑

He actually faces up to 25 years in prison and 1.25 million in fines. Up to 5 years and $250,000 on each count.
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No the sentences for each count would run concurrently (as opposed to stacked on to one another) so 5 years is the total max.

Buck Turgidson · Jan 9, 2016

DoitDickau said: ↑

No the sentences for each count would run concurrently (as opposed to stacked on to one another) so 5 years is the total max.
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Wouldn't that be up to the judge, or is there some sort of federal sentencing statute in play?

bobrek · Jan 9, 2016

msn said: ↑

What are you guys going to do if it comes out that Luhnow or someone else the Astros hired away really did bring proprietary information with them?
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Considering he illegally logged in to their computer system multiple times and accessed all kinds of information and then managed to access the system again after they changed their passwords, it is hard to believe his story that he did it to find proprietary information taken from the Cardinals.

Using that as his reasoning, he was in a no-win situation as the only way he could prove it was to illegally access the Astros system. At that point, he becomes a criminal and his word is suspect. His continuing illegal access further dilutes his story.

bobrek · Jan 9, 2016

Buck Turgidson said: ↑

Wouldn't that be up to the judge, or is there some sort of federal sentencing statute in play?
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After reading the response to my post, I did some further googling and the prosecutors agreed to concurrent sentences.

awc713 · Jan 9, 2016

Fantastic article by Passan on why MLB needs to hammer STL: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/mlb-mu...s-checkbook-for-hacking-astros-005253782.html

Interesting quote that I never really considered:

In 2014, the Astros had the first pick in the draft and the Cardinals the last pick, meaning the Cardinals were always picking one slot ahead of Houston. As such, knowing the Astros' 2014 draft board, their analytics and scouting departments' favorite players and their scouting evaluations – all of which Correa saw – had great significance.
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[NY Times] Cardinals under FBI investigation for hacking Astros

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