Strange thing (or may be not so strange)

[kagliostro]

Ciao Doug

Today, few minutes ago, I was reading an old thread (my answer on post #1)

https://el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=13952.msg130957#msg130957

I had it opened in one other window and when I returned to that page I've seen, at the begin of my post #1, an add I didn't made

as first line there was a link to an image with the Ukrainian flag with write something like "Stop the War" or similar

Even if I have nothing against stopping the war in Ukraina, it did not seem appropriate to a post in the forum and I proceeded to delete the link

How this happened I don't know, but I thought it was correct to warn you

Franco

[EL34]

I have no idea how that can happen unless it is something on your end?

[kagliostro]

Today, a friend of mine, mentioned me about problems with PCs, maybe he has to do with Hacker attacks to Italy of which they talk on this last days

So nothing to do with your server

Ciao

Franco

[PRR]

....a link to an image with the Ukrainian flag with write something like "Stop the War" or similar...

That post has links to images almost a decade old.

Usually old image links "rot", the image files or their server get deleted.

Although there is the recent case of an old-old image server, shut-down years ago, bought-up by a porno site. Some VERY reputable sites had used the image server years ago and the links were still in their old pages. Suddenly a story about the price of potatoes in Patagonia was "decorated" by naked women.

In the current world upset, it is *possible* some image-host servers are replacing user images with political statements. "VOX-amp-sch.jpg" was posted in 2012, but in 2022 PhotoBucket could decide to "Make a statement!" by re-linking that URL to a political image.

Such actions usually get noticed by news agencies. If I see a report of image-hosts serving up protest images instead of our puppies and amplifiers, I'll try to remember to post a link here.

[shooter]

 
once humans started teaching computers to program themselves, with purpose, or attitude, then going out for a beer to celebrate, all beats are off.

[kagliostro]

Ciao

I think that PRR is on the right path

Franco

[kagliostro]

I had other experience with this thing in other forums

seems that somebody haked with the same image the image host Imageshak

so what PRR told is confirmed

Franco

[PRR]

I had not found anythng about image files.

There is a report of a piece of Javascript which, when run in Russia, posts peace messages and messes with files.
https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/18/protestware_javascript_node_ipc/

[PRR]

I have this from the staff section at another forum.

"something strange is happening in the past, two posts of this user that I can see thus far. what's happening here, izzit imageshack stuffing us around? and non-https image links at that - one page won't finish loading. it's screwy, I tells yah."

The image-links were gone when I got there, but I guess they were old imageshack links and imageshack has been modifying old image links.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImageShack#External_links
In August 2015, ImageShack silently started replacing deleted embedded images with advertising, littering many internet forums with advertising banners.[6] The company announced in November 2015 that free accounts would be discontinued on January 31, 2016 if they were not upgraded.[7]
Since March 2022, all images posted by Russian users have been replaced with propaganda pictures of anti-Russian content and fakes

Also:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/t53z6d/imageshack_replaces_old_broken_links_with_message/
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=24&t=1977505
https://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?167159-Russian-Ukraine-spam-in-all-of-my-forum-posts
https://texags.com/forums/30/topics/3278477
"You shouldn't use a link to a random image because as you've found out you're at the whim of whoever controls that resource. "