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Ho-ly. Curius, I searched: tomshardware requesting I download file and got: Recent reports from August 2026 indicate that users accessing Tom's Hardware on mob
by goodmythical 1mo ago
Ho-ly. Curius, I searched: tomshardware requesting I download file and got:
Recent reports from August 2026 indicate that users accessing Tom's Hardware on mobile browsers experienced unexpected file download requests (with a link to your comment) while viewing specific content. Similar issues occurred historically, where buggy ad servers or site scripts triggered empty "usnc" file downloads or 0-byte files on devices lacking adblockers.
Current and Historical Context
The unexpected prompt you are seeing is a known behavior that has resurfaced recently. On August 30, 2026, mobile users browsing via Safari on iOS reported that loading articles—specifically regarding a recent 12TB Steam leak—triggered an unsolicited prompt asking them to download a file.
This matches historical patterns where technical glitches or external elements on the platform caused automated downloads...
And then it lists a couple of times it happened in the past.
- anigbrowl 1mo agoDon't post LLM output to HN. Anyone here who wants to know what Gemini says has the capacity to look it up for themselves.
- goodmythical 1mo agoSorry for sharing my interest that the search was providing results based on recent forum activity.