ELI5. Why can’t phones get viruses from websites that normal computers do? And why don’t computers use whatever technology the phones operating systems use?

Question

ELI5. Why can’t phones get viruses from websites that normal computers do? And why don’t computers use whatever technology the phones operating systems use?

In: Technology

Answer 1

In simple words, mobile systems are based on computer operating systems which for decades were marginally popular. Viruses were all this time aiming at most popular operating systems, which all the time was one or another Windows from Microsoft, which luckily for them had a lot of vulnerabilities to exploit. Meanwhile these other systems, already based on better solutions and less vulnerable, were developed and improved in a virus-aware manner, to be almost airtight against viruses.

So when the popularity focus moved from PC to mobile devices, it was much better prepared.