St. Louis Cardinals Being Investigated by the FBI for Allegedly Hacking the Houston Astros

Photo Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

The St. Louis Cardinals, owners of the least tolerable fans in baseball, are being investigated by the FBI for allegedly hacking into a player personnel database run by the Houston Astros. According to the New York Times, “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.” And was it done by some super intelligent mega-hacker brought in by the Cards? Nope. They just guessed the password:

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 [Ed. Note: Of course], 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.

Dude, change your passwords up. The Times continues, saying the Astros believed that they were targeted by a “rogue hacker,” but the FBI learned that the network had been accessed “from a computer at a home that some Cardinals officials had lived in.” But that’s what happens when you use “HoustonWeHaveAPassword” as your login credentials.