Hacking anyone or any company’s private communications is underhanded and most likely illegal. People do it all the time, of course, but that doesn’t change it. What also doesn’t change: third parties’ interest in the hacked information, regardless of the legality of the hack. Especially when the hackee is famous or notable.
The Houston Astros are famous and notable and now Deadspin is reporting that their highly-publicized internal communication and evaluation system called “Ground Control” got hacked. Among the stolen data which has been posted online are internal discussions about a possible trade for Giancarlo Stanton last year, the leadup to the Bud Norris trade and discussions between the Astros and Yankees back during spring training in which the Yankees offered Ichiro Suzuki to Houston, largely for cash.
The data comes in the form of notes, not unlike you’d see in a customer service database in which representatives make a note each time you call in. Like this, reflecting conversations about Bud Norris in the runup to last year’s trade deadline:
“7/29/2013",” SF said they still had interest in Norris. JL said they would have to include both Blackburn and Mejia to be competitive.”
“7/29/2013",” AA texted JL and asked what a package around Stroman might look like. JL said Stoman + Gose would be in consideration.”
“7/29/2013",” BC texted JL and said they couldn’t include Boegarts, Cecchini, Webster, or Bradley but thought they had enough depth to still make an appealing package. JL wrote back and asked if they would consider a package around Barnes and Owens.”
On the one hand: let’s smile at the Astros asking for a package including Xander Boegarts for Bud freakin’ Norris. On the other hand: let us not pretend that we have much of a clue how most trade discussions go. You don’t get the sky if you don’t ask for the stars, right?
And no matter what you think of all of this, I think it’s OK to think that (a) whoever hacked into the Astros’ database is probably gonna get in big trouble; and (b) the Astros probably need to talk to someone about data security.
