On Tuesday the New York Times broke the story about the FBI’s investigation into the St. Louis Cardinals accessing the Houston Astros information database. From the initial report it didn’t sound like much of a hack at all. The working theory at the time was that someone within the Cardinals organization tried passwords that current Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and others used when they were employees of St. Louis.
This led to numerous comparisons on the web to a plot point from this season’s Silicon Valley. I don’t know who made this joke/comparison first. I saw it on Jason Lisk’s Twitter feed and referenced it in my kneejerk reaction to the story. Let’s agree it would be difficult for someone to claim they were the first and only person to draw this comparison. Silicon Valley is a popular television show. The Cardinals story was all over the news. Lo and behold more than one human being might make the same connection, no big deal. We all get gold stars!
If a Sports Illustrated exclusive with Luhnow is to be believed, this Silicon Valley password premise loses some of its luster. From Ben Reiter’s piece.
One was the implication that the hackers had been able to gain access to the Astros’ database—which is called Ground Control and contains scouting and medical reports and statistical projections, among other data—because he had failed to change his old passwords. “That’s absolutely false,” said Luhnow, who worked as a technology executive before he began his career in baseball. “I absolutely know about password hygiene and best practices. I’m certainly aware of how important passwords are, as well as of the importance of keeping them updated. A lot of my job in baseball, as it was in high tech, is to make sure that intellectual property is protected. I take that seriously and hold myself and those who work for me to a very high standard.”
Taking Luhnow at his word shuts down the fun sports-to-pop culture comparison. Bummer.
Next time Luhnow speaks to the media someone needs to ask him his take on Fage Yogurt.
RELATED: Try Not to Compare the Cardinals-Astros Hacking to Deflated Footbal, If Possible
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