Former St. Louis Cardinals exec sentenced for hacking Astros
HOUSTON -- The former scouting director of the St. Louis Cardinals has been sentenced to nearly four years in jail for hacking the Houston Astros' player personnel database.
Christopher Correa's sentencing in Houston federal court Monday came after he pleaded guilty in January to five counts of unauthorized access of a protected computer. He was sentenced to 46 months behind bars and ordered to pay $279,038 in restitution.
Correa was the Cardinals' director of baseball development until being fired last summer. He told the judge at the time of his plea that his actions were "stupid."
The data breach was first reported in June 2014 when Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow told reporters the team had been the victim of hackers who accessed servers and published information online about months of internal trade talks. Luhnow had previously worked for the Cardinals.
CBS St. Louis affiliate KMOV reported that court documents alleged Correa accessed the Astros' database by using a similar password to one he discovered was used by Luhnow when Luhnow was with the Cardinals. Using that password, he gained access to Luhnow's email, which allowed him to access the database after additional security measures were installed.