Astro Accused Of Having Business Links With An Israeli Company Named Amdocs
In protest to Astro's 'Israel link' claim, hackers hacked Astro's official website and replaced it with a poster bearing the face of a man painted with the Malaysian flag and the words: "#OpSaveGaza".
By Sadho Ram — 27 Jul 2014, 01:41 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
On 24 July, 2014, the Islamic Da'wah Foundation Malaysia chief in a Facebook post had threatened a boycott against the country's largest paid television service provider to explain the company's latest alleged business deal with an Israeli entity
In his Facebook posting yesterday, Asyraf said: “Amdocs is an Israel-owned company which was just awarded with a ‘Subscriber Management System’ contract by Astro. Astro has to explain the deal or face a boycott over the move,” he said, calling on Malaysians to boycott Astro as an objection over the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
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"Malaysians should boycott Astro as a protest against the killings of Palestinians," he said in the posting. Asyraf also attached online reports by Haaretz, Israel's oldest newspaper, which reported about the deal. His remarks were subsequently picked by the Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) web portal.
malaysiakini.comNext day, on 25 July 2014, the Facebook page of Astro was bombarded with angry comments over its purported business links with an Israeli company
The barrage of comments appear to have been prompted by remarks made by Yayasan Dakwah Islamiah Malaysia (Yadim) chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, who is also Umno supreme council member.
malaysiakini.comSoon after, several postings by Astro to promote its programmes were spammed with comments demanding to know if the allegation was true
"Astro uses the service of Israeli company Amdocs. Let's pressure it to change company for its billing services or else it is our responsibility to boycott Astro," said one user by the name of Amiinulhikmi Jamros.
malaysiakini.comYet another user, Mohd Zuhairi Mzm said: "If Astro remains silent without an official statement soon on the Amdocs issue, I will not hesitate to stop being a customer of Astro and funders of Zionism."
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It culminated with the downing of Astro's official website. The hackers also defaced Astro's website by replacing it with a poster bearing the face of a man painted with the Malaysian flag and the words: "#OpSaveGaza".
The perpetrators also signed off as "Malaysia Security Test3r" on the defaced website. They also left behind a message calling for hackers, human rights orgnisations and activists to unite against Israel's military campaign in Gaza.
malaysiakini.comThe defaced website was removed by Astro and was inaccessible for some hours. It returned to normal the next morning but the defaced version had since been uploaded on YouTube.
Then on 26 July, following intensified attacks on Astro, including hacking of its website, the satellite television network finally broke its silence over its dealing with Israel-based company Amdocs
While acknowledging that Astro had appointed Amdocs to provide software and services for customer relation management and billing systems, the company said Amdocs today is openly owned through the stock market in US.
malaysiakini.com"The company’s (Amdocs) principal headquarters is in the United States.The USA-based Southwestern Bell acquired a 50 percent stake in Amdocs in 1985. Today, Amdocs is 100 percent institutionally owned via its listing on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange," it said in a Facebook posting this afternoon.
malaysiakini.comAstro added that Amdocs has over 20,000 employees in 70 countries. "The Amdocs subsidiaries which Astro has engaged with are incorporated in Ireland and Malaysia," it said.
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