How to use public Wi-Fi hotspots safely

Consider this: If you or an employee is using free Wi-Fi in some local café, in a matter of seconds a hacker can manipulate your machine into a “man-in-the-middle” scenario, where the device is now a conduit that sends data right to the bad guy.  Once a device is compromised, login credentials (corporate mail server, bank accounts, LinkedIn.com, Facebook.com, etc.) can be harvested by using SSL Stripping.