eli5: Why do computer operating systems have lots of viruses and phone operating systems don’t?
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The boring answer is that people are used to doing whatever they want with their computers, so computers (typically) have a lot less limitations.
Phones are, for a lot of reasons, more “tightened up” and get away with it because people actually accept their limitations.
The limitations give viruses fewer entry points that can be attacked, and for that reason they are perceived as more safe.
In reality, the difficulty in getting a virus into a phone also makes it more difficult for a user to know that there is a virus in it, so this is a double edged sword…
The boring answer is that people are used to doing whatever they want with their computers, so computers (typically) have a lot less limitations.
Phones are, for a lot of reasons, more “tightened up” and get away with it because people actually accept their limitations.
The limitations give viruses fewer entry points that can be attacked, and for that reason they are perceived as more safe.
In reality, the difficulty in getting a virus into a phone also makes it more difficult for a user to know that there is a virus in it, so this is a double edged sword…
The boring answer is that people are used to doing whatever they want with their computers, so computers (typically) have a lot less limitations.
Phones are, for a lot of reasons, more “tightened up” and get away with it because people actually accept their limitations.
The limitations give viruses fewer entry points that can be attacked, and for that reason they are perceived as more safe.
In reality, the difficulty in getting a virus into a phone also makes it more difficult for a user to know that there is a virus in it, so this is a double edged sword…
Phones are mainly based on locked down sandboxed Linux containers. Apps are usually downloaded from official OS specific stores, with little need for anyone to bypass the official stores, to install dirty pirate versions.
Yes there are file systems on phones and viruses do exist and can corrupt local files but most sensitive data is on cloud services accessed through apps. Those apps have their own security suites in them.
Having a smartphone OS is much like having a Chromebook. It is a platform mainly to access cloud services, so a virus would do little damage and be wiped out after a reboot.
Phones are mainly based on locked down sandboxed Linux containers. Apps are usually downloaded from official OS specific stores, with little need for anyone to bypass the official stores, to install dirty pirate versions.
Yes there are file systems on phones and viruses do exist and can corrupt local files but most sensitive data is on cloud services accessed through apps. Those apps have their own security suites in them.
Having a smartphone OS is much like having a Chromebook. It is a platform mainly to access cloud services, so a virus would do little damage and be wiped out after a reboot.
Smartphones OSs are relatively new, and we have learned *a lot* about security and OS design in general.
Desktop OSs are stuck with design decisions made literally decades ago, when only 100 people even had computers and security wasn’t something people worried about.
They also can’t change those things, as that would break so many applications.
Phones are mainly based on locked down sandboxed Linux containers. Apps are usually downloaded from official OS specific stores, with little need for anyone to bypass the official stores, to install dirty pirate versions.
Yes there are file systems on phones and viruses do exist and can corrupt local files but most sensitive data is on cloud services accessed through apps. Those apps have their own security suites in them.
Having a smartphone OS is much like having a Chromebook. It is a platform mainly to access cloud services, so a virus would do little damage and be wiped out after a reboot.
Smartphones OSs are relatively new, and we have learned *a lot* about security and OS design in general.
Desktop OSs are stuck with design decisions made literally decades ago, when only 100 people even had computers and security wasn’t something people worried about.
They also can’t change those things, as that would break so many applications.
Phone operating systems are largely designed to assume the user is not experienced with setting up or securing an operating system. This is done in a way that is not at all friendly to business or advanced users. Any app software runs in a sandbox, but they have a lot of freedom inside the sandbox to collect and farm data.
Like you may hear people from google and apple talk about privacy, but they never include themselves. They are the primary digital stalkers farming and selling everything they collect. From that perspective, they are the final alpha boss virus.
Phone operating systems are largely designed to assume the user is not experienced with setting up or securing an operating system. This is done in a way that is not at all friendly to business or advanced users. Any app software runs in a sandbox, but they have a lot of freedom inside the sandbox to collect and farm data.
Like you may hear people from google and apple talk about privacy, but they never include themselves. They are the primary digital stalkers farming and selling everything they collect. From that perspective, they are the final alpha boss virus.
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