Correa was formerly the scouting director for the St. Louis Cardinals, and according to the federal charging documents, used the login credentials of Jeff Luhnow, a scouting executive for the Cardinals who left to join the Houston Astros as General Manager in 2011. Hughes also sentenced Correa to two years supervised release after he does his time. “Anytime someone unauthorizingly uses the computers to gain access to other peoples’ trade secrets”, USA attorney Kenneth Magidson said.
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It’s said that he accessed the “Ground Control” database managed by the Houston Astros which contained highly sensitive information on player trades.
The Cardinals aren’t saying much, which comes as no surprise as an active investigation is still underway.
As the former director of baseball development, Correa was tasked with providing analytics to the team.
The St. Louis organization still faces penalties from Major League Baseball, be it a fine or a loss of draft picks.
Correa is no longer employed by the Cardinals organization.
But it didn’t stop there: after the Astros caught wind of an intruder, Correa pushed even further.
Regardless, Correa, who was sacked after news of the hack went public last summer, plead guilty and will now have to spend almost four years in prison (barring an early release). Correa happened to know his old boss’ password from his time with the Cardinals, which Lunhow failed to change significantly after switching teams.
Luhnow previously worked with Correa at the St Louis Cardinals, before leaving for the Houston Astros – and in both jobs, used variations on the password “Eckstein”, referring to a famous baseball player. He admitted to using unauthorized access to view scouting reports, evaluations and other internal notes from the Astros. He also looked at specific pages for two players, neither of whom the Cardinals drafted.
The breach was first reported in June 2014.
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Correa reportedly hacked the Astros database numerous times, examining the organization’s notes on recently-drafted players, potential draftees, global prospects, and on trade discussions that had occurred in advance of the deadline. A few minutes later, Correa used this information to access another person’s Ground Control account without authorization.
