Ethics in Baseball

Last week, Chris Correa, former scouting director of the Cardinals, pleaded guilty in Federal Court to repeatedly hacking into the Houston Astro database to look at their scouting reports and priorities.

What's weird is that he used to be an employee of the Astros. And he just kept on using the password he always used when he was an employee there since the Astros never changed it,

EVEN if this was probably unethical, this is hacking only in the broadest sense of the word. It would be like an ex knowing your Facebook, email, or Netflix password and continuing to use it. At some point, the wronged individual, if they care enough about the information really should change their passwords. If nothing else, it shows they think what they are protecting has value.

But the Cardinals and Federal Courts feel differently. He was fired from the Cardinals when they found out and now he's been convicted of a federal crime for doing it. In a society that uses passwords to access accounts all the time this seems harsh. I'm not saying it wasn't wrong, but did they have to make a federal case out of it?

Correa has no special computer hacking skills. He didn't spend days breaking in through secured servers. He just kept using the password that the Astros GAVE him.

Anyway, it gets weirder. Even though the Cardinals never knew that their director was doing it, now the courts have to decide how much of a penalty they have to pay because Correa used that information to benefit his organization.

The dollar amount has been set at $1.7 million. BUT it may cost them draft picks as well. Even though the organization, as a whole, had no idea that Correa was using his password for such nefarious work.

My question is this: How much of this mess was the Astros fault? IF you give the keys to you car to someone and they use it once in a while is it all THEIR fault for driving it?

None of this would have happened if the Astros would regularly change their passwords. They have to be accountable as well.

Please listen to what I'm saying here. I don't think it's a family's fault if their house is broken into. BUT if you give someone the KEYS to your front door often enough, don't be surprised if one of your friends comes in and eats your cookies.