Threat Management

Soros hacker charged

The man who stole US$ 50,000 (£37,000) from George Soros has finally been charged.

David Kupratis, 31, of New Jersey stole the money from the Soros' Open Society foundation, his previous employer, which by its own account, works “to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens.”

He was arrested in February, held at Rikers Island, and faced two counts of identity theft, two of petty larceny and one of computer tampering. On Monday, Kupratis was sentenced to a possible six years in prison by Judge Robert E. Mandlebaum.

At his sentencing, Kupratis was remorseful, apologizing and saying, “going forward I know I'll be on the right path.”

Kupratis had been dismissed from his role as network administrator at  the Foundation for an unspecified event involving ‘lost data'. According to the indictment, Kupratis pulled off the theft by impersonating two people in August 2014 before going on to steal a laptop and a mobile phone the next month. Further details of how Kupratis pulled this off have not been revealed although he had a well documented history of expertise in information systems and a PHD in Information Technology Management.

According to some outlets, Kupratis also had a criminal history. In 2013, he was charged with the theft of US$ 500 (£372) and two credit cards.

Norman Shaw, CEO of ExactTrak previously commented to SCMagazineUK.com, that insider threats like this one too often go unnoticed.

“There's always so much written about cyber-crime and hacking that the insider threat is not often recognised as being the huge risk that it is. The insider threat problem doesn't make it onto the boardroom agenda and so it doesn't get the attention or budget that it deserves.“

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