Why aren’t computer-viruses as common on cell phones as they are on PCs?
In: Technology
They are really common on phones. Like terrifyingly so. There have been a lot of malware takedowns over the years on both the iOS store and the Play Store for apps that have been installed millions or tens of millions of times. You can also get malware installed from just browsing web pages. There have been cases where just receiving a text could install malware on your phone. The thing is that in pretty much all of these cases the malware is designed to hide itself. So you don’t know it’s there. They usually just want to track you. Sometimes they make you send spam texts. Or fake adclicks to a specific developer. Or mine crypto. Or just steal all your private data or bank accounts. Or just sit there waiting for instructions. And they usually go through insane lengths to stay hidden. Some have been mass installed by millions and only seemed to target a handful of people.
This problem is WAY worse for devices that don’t get security updates anymore. As in the absolutely mind boggling number of old Android devices out there that haven’t received any security patches for years. Most of the users of these devices don’t even know they’ve been compromised because at the end of the day most of the malware wants to stay hidden as much as possible.
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