Will VPN protects from threats in Free Wi-Fi

[Garybrown]

Hi, 

I think this is the right place to place this query. I am a person who uses public free Wi-Fi services. I use it for accessing social medias and some browsing. I recently read about the security risks of using free Wi-Fi. It is written here that hackers or malicious software can easily attack our system. http://nci.ca/potential-risks-free-wi-fi-minimize-risk/ I didn't know the threats before. They have recommended on using VPN while accessing the network. I don't know whether that will help. Does the VPn service prevent malicious software from attacking ? Need advice.

[gsarica]

VPN can help but of course nothing is truly safe, especially when connecting to something open like free Wifi. VPN will route all your traffic through the secure tunnel which means that anyone else connected to the same Wifi as you cannot see your traffic or intercept it. The only risk left would be before you connect to the VPN. Usually when you use free Wifi, they require you to open your browser and authenticate before using the internet, while in this state you can be attacked. It's rare but can happen, and if you must use free Wifi, VPN is the safest way to do so.