Astro has finally broken its silence over its dealing with Amdocs, a company founded in Israel, following intensified attacks on the satellite television network, including hacking of its website.

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.

"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.

Astro 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.

Side effect of Gaza attack

Yesterday, Yayasan Dakwah Islamiah Malaysia (Yadim) chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, who is also Umno supreme council member, accused   Astro dealing with companies linked to Israel.

The remarks came amid charged emotions at home over Israel's ground offensive in Gaza which has claimed over 700 lives.

This prompted an avalanche of comments on Astro's Facebook demanding to know if the allegation was true.

It culminated with the downing of Astro's official website around midnight.

The hackers 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.

The defaced website was promptly removed by Astro and its website was inaccessible for some hours.

A check by Malaysiakini found the website could not be accessed at 2am.

The website returned to normal this morning but the defaced version had since been uploaded on Youtube .