Multiple Suspects Looked at in Cardinals Hacking Scandal

Earlier this week the New York Times revealed that the St. Louis Cardinals allegedly hacked into the Houston Astros computer network and stole proprietary information back in June 2014.

Major League Baseball now faces a scandal that dwarfs the NFL’s “Spy-gate” and “Deflate-gate” fiascos. Just how far up the Cardinals management ladder the hacked information got, will determine exactly how big a deal this actually is.

Yahoo Sports reported that the FBI traced the hacking back to a house in Jupiter, Florida, the city in which the Cardinals play during spring training.

At this point investigators can’t put the finger on any one yet because several Cardinals employees used the house. The Houston Chronicle reported that investigators scrutinize four-to-five individuals within the Cardinals organization. According to multiple sources the investigation should wrap up soon.

Assistant U.S. attorney Michael Chu took over the investigation and specializes in computer hacking and intellectual property breaches.

The initial FBI investigation commenced last summer when Astro secret trade talks were leaked to a public website. Consequently, team officials investigated and knew a security breach transpired.

“There was no question there’d been a security breach into the database,” said a league source with knowledge of the situation.

Breitbart News reported that general manager Jeff Luhnow’s name surfaced in the investigation. Lunhnow worked for the Cardinals organization up until 2011 before taking on GM responsibilities for the Astros. Some speculate that his passwords may have been breached and that the Cardinals hacked Luhnow to embarrass him.

“When somebody illegally from the outside breaks into [a] proprietary database that we have, not all the information that was published is accurate,” Lunhnow commented in June 2014. “Some of it is not. I really can’t get into what was accurate and what wasn’t. Some of it was. But it was an illegal activity and we’re going to pursue it and try and find out who did it and prosecute them because it’s not something that should be happening.”