Socially engineered threats remain a major security concern on mobile devices, so to help protect its users Lookout Mobile Security (download) has added "safe browsing" to its premium version today at no extra cost. Safe browsing checks links you tap before they load in your device's Web browser to make sure they don't lead to phishing scams or malware.
Safe browsing is not quite widely available yet on mobile devices, even though it potentially can threaten mobile device users as easily as it does people using laptops and desktops. In an interview last week at CNET's San Francisco office, Lookout's Chief Technology Officer Kevin Mahaffey discussed what he thinks are the next big mobile security problems. "The two things we saw coming were drive-by downloads and exploits on Web sites. Since almost all web browsing on mobile is done with Webkit, Webkit exploits will affect almost everybody," he said. Webkit is the underlying rendering engine that powers the default mobile browser on iOS, most of the mobile browsers including the default on Android, as well as Google Chrome and Apple Safari on the desktop.

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