This story should tell you something: hacking doesn’t only happen in department stores and hospital databases. Now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the front-office officials for Major League Baseball’s (MLB) St. Louis Cardinals. These front-office officials allegedly hacked into the internal networks of one of its rival teams, the Houston Astros, to gain access to information about player personnel.
The information included internal discussions about trades, proprietary statistics and scouting reports and was part of a large collection of “baseball knowledge.” This ‘baseball knowledge’ was organized using a computer program that took all the different statistical variables about players and weighted “them according to the values determines by the team’s statisticians, physicists, doctors, scouts, and coaches.”
While not much has been revealed so far about this FBI investigation, subpoenas have been served upon the Cardinals and the MLB itself. An MLB spokesman said, “[We] have been aware of and [have] fully cooperated with the federal investigation into the illegal breach of the Astros’ baseball operations database.” The MLB commissioner will likely wait until after the investigation is concluded to determine whether disciplinary action is necessary against the team.