[soumitss]

I'm a freelance graphic designer working from cafes. How risky is it really to use public WiFi without protection?

[soumitss]

Extremely risky without a VPN service! Public WiFi is a hacker's paradise. Real threats: Man-in-the-middle attacks (hacker intercepts your traffic), session hijacking (steals your login cookies), packet sniffing (reads unencrypted data), fake WiFi hotspots (hacker's network posing as cafe). As freelancer, you're sending client files, invoices, accessing bank accounts - all vulnerable. I learned this hard way when client's sensitive files got intercepted at Starbucks. Now use Turbo VPN religiously - it encrypts everything with AES 256-bit (same as banks). Even if hacker intercepts, sees only gibberish. Free version works for basic protection, Premium gives unlimited data for large file transfers. Your freelance business depends on client trust - one breach destroys that.