**Court Tosses Appeal by Hacker Who Opened Port to Coke Smugglers with Malware**

A Dutch appeals court has upheld a seven-year prison sentence against a man who used malware-stuffed USB sticks to help cocaine smugglers breach port IT systems, dismissing claims that police overstepped their bounds by reading his encrypted chats.

The defendant, a Dutch national, was arrested in 2021 and convicted the following year of complicity in computer hacking, complicity in the extended import of cocaine, and attempted extortion. He appealed, arguing that the police had no right to read his messages on the encrypted messaging service SkyECC.

However, in a ruling dated January 9, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal rejected this argument, finding that the defendant played a central role in breaching port systems and turning digital access into a tool for organized crime. The court heard how the defendant had orchestrated the intrusion by having a terminal employee insert a USB stick containing malware into a workstation, opening the door to months of remote access.

Investigations revealed that a backdoor was installed in September 2020, which stayed active until the following year. Chats on SkyECC showed the defendant live-blogging the break-in, promising accomplices "USB is faster" and assuring them he would "delete the logs" once he had admin rights.

Defense lawyers argued that the SkyECC chats should not have been included in the case file, claiming that the cross-border cooperation used to obtain them undermined the defendant's right to a fair trial. However, the appeal judges said this argument was insufficiently substantiated and rejected it.

SkyECC itself was later disrupted by a Europol-backed crackdown in 2021 after investigators targeted criminal use of encrypted communications in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands.

The court also found that when password-cracking stalled, the defendant had pitched a hardware keylogger as an alternative, calling it "untraceable" and assuring accomplices it wouldn't trigger antivirus software. He sent around instructions on where to plug it in, complete with a photo of the device.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, judges rejected the claim that the hack was lawful because an employee had cooperated. They said the worker's involvement was allowed only for legitimate purposes – not to open the door for outsiders – and this breach gave hackers access to data they had no business seeing.

The cyber intrusion wasn't an end in itself; it was used to facilitate a 210 kg cocaine shipment hidden in wine, complete with fake paperwork, Portbase advice, and careful timing. In one exchange, the defendant warned that mishandling the Portbase system would mean "you're in trouble."

One major charge was thrown out, however: the defendant was acquitted of involvement in a separate attempted import of 5,000 kilograms of cocaine, with judges finding insufficient evidence to prove real participation rather than talk after the fact. The broader verdict stood, with the sentence reduced from nine years due to appeal delays and the confiscation of hacking kit.

The court also ordered the defendant to pay for the port's cleanup and legal bills, bringing a successful conclusion to a high-profile case that highlights the ongoing threats posed by cybercrime and the importance of cooperation between law enforcement agencies across borders.