By Chris Brown – STL Baseball Today
The F.B.I. investigation into the alleged hacking of the Houston Astros baseball operations database known as ‘Ground Control’ has now narrowed its focus onto a “small group of Cardinals employees who specialize in statistical analysis and computer programming,” according to a report released Monday by the New York Times. As first reported by Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports, the F.B.I. traced the breach to a house in Jupiter, Florida, where the Cardinals hold Spring Training. As for how the exact location was discovered, Michael S. Schmidt of the Times, who first broke the story last Tuesday, provides the details:
Despite efforts by the intruder or intruders to mask their location, the agents were able to trace at least one of the breaches directly back to that computer.
Whoever gained access to the Astros’ network tried to take some measures used by experienced hackers to disguise their location. But, law enforcement officials said, the intruders were not adept.
“They tried to mask themselves like an experienced hacker and failed,” said a person briefed on the investigation. “It’s clear they weren’t very good at what they were trying to do.”
The inability to properly cover tracks proved to be a significant break for the F.B.I. When the bureau opened an investigation into the breach last year, agents followed the trail of the intrusion directly to the computer that had been used at the residence in Jupiter.
Despite a seeming close to completed investigation, the F.B.I. is still struggling with one crucial aspect: who, specifically, of the employees with access to the computer from with the breach occurred, actually had their fingers on the keyboard.
It’s been widely believed that whoever gained access to Astros’ network did so by logging on as Houston General Manager and former Cardinals executive Jeff Luhnow, but the Times also reports that the account of Sig Mejdal, Director of Decision Sciences, may have been the one compromised. The tresspasser reportedly examined passwords used by Luhnow and Mejdal, a former Cardinals employee, while they were in St. Louis, and used those to gain access to the database.
