Software Router Intrusion

I recently found an outside device connected to Connectify (software router) that I installed a while back in an attempt to improve my WIFI calling. Essentially, I was trying to use it as an access point for my router.

Once I found the device, I ran AVG and nothing was detected. I installed Malwarebytes and it found 60 issues, most of these were registry edits.

It concerned me enough that I formatted my drive and re-installed Windows.

My main concern is that anything performed on this outside device that was listed in Connectify would be seen by my work's VPN.

Is this possible?

 

Or that this outside 'device' could be a hacker's PC who could be hacking your work's network thru the VPN.

 

You found a foreign device attached to the wifi hotspot you set up, so I take that to mean that someone used the wifi you set up. I'm not familiar with connectify, did you require a complex password to connect to it? Or does connectify just broadcast free wifi wherever you take your computer? If you're still using connectify I would recommend you look into securing it so that only people you allow can connect.

I'll bet a fair amount of money that the malware that malwarebytes found isn't related to the device on connectify. But it was still a good call to reinstall.

I'm not sure I understand your concern about the work VPN. If you're concerned that the work's network was impacted by this, then you should talk to your work IT guys. If you're worried that the rogue device was snooping your traffic on the VPN, then that's probably unlikely because VPNs tunnel traffic through a secure connection. So unless your work is using crappy or no encryption on the VPN tunnel, the traffic should be safe.