NDS faces fresh hacking claims, accuses BBC of “gross misrepresentation”

New allegations have emerged claiming that conditional access company NDS promoted pay TV piracy in Australia that adversely impacted local operators.

The Australian Financial Review has published 14,000 emails allegedly from a former head of security at NDS that, according to the business newspaper, appear to show NDS paid hackers to undermine the security of various operators. The events led to operators including Foxtel, Austar and Optus losing millions of dollars, according the newspaper.

The Australian arm of News Corp said the report was “full of factual inaccuracies, flawed references, fanciful conclusions and baseless accusations.”

These allegations come in the same week that NDS, which is in the process of being sold by owners News Corp and Permira to Cisco, denied any wrongdoing in the UK following this week’s episode of Panorma. The BBC investigative series aired an interview with a hacker who claimed that NDS had recruited him to hack the security codes of the now defunct pay TV platform ONdigital. In a statement issued by News Corp, president and CEO Chase Carey said the Panorama episode was a “gross misrepresentation” of NDS. “Panorama presented manipulated and mischaracterised emails to produce unfair and baseless accusations. News Corporation is proud to have worked with NDS and to have supported them in their aggressive fight against piracy and copyright infringement,” he said.

Rupert Murdoch hit back at unfavorable press reports on Twitter. “Seems every competitor and enemy piling on with lies and libels. So bad, easy to hit back hard, which preparing,” he wrote.

NDS has been keen to point out that it was recently awarded close to US$19 million (€14 million) in damages following the US Supreme Court’s denial of a petition by US broadcaster EchoStar and TV technology company Kudelski over allegations of abetting piracy leveled against NDS in the US.