Cops knocking on my door @ 2:00 a.m.

So I jump out of bed to a doorbell and the "Police". Thinking something has happened to my son I throw the door open to, "Do you have a daughter" ? NO!! I reply. Well, we received a suicide note from a 17 yr old girl and the IP address traces back to this house!!

I have all my devices locked up with kasprsky, etc EXCEPT my son who downloader something that is hijacking hs browser. Could this give someone access to our network?

 

Yes it could, put Kaspersky on your sons computer, nobody who is not a security expert or works in security should have a computer without the correct software in place. I am a security expert and even I myself use security software as a precaution, so you definitely should. If you want to be really thorough you can always call your local computer repair guy and explain the problem and he may well be able to run scans and check things you can't for this specific problem, if you live in an apartment building or scratch that you should change your network routers login and password as the IP could have come from someone getting unauthorized access to your modem or wi-fi router. I would say security software and change wi-fi router password is your best bet for stopping the problem. You don't need anything else despite what people may tell you, you can also look up your ISP and ask to change your IP address if you wish to be very through, which is easy if you explain your problem.

 

Browser hijacks, AFAIK, shouldn't be able to do that far. At least they aren't usually do that. I'll suggest to track the case first by asking your local police department if they allowed it. Then if it's been clear that you got a cyber crime problem, then the solution is...

...if your ISP made it possible.

P.S.: I'm lacking knowledge in this part but, I thought IP address is tied with the computer?

 

IP lives in the router given to you by your ISP on connection, most people can reset a router to get a new dynamic IP but since OP is not an expert and we don't know the state of his connection, changing an IP is best left to his ISP.

 

IP address is assigned by the ISP. Another reason for a VPN. MAC address is assigned to the computer and more specifically your network card.

 

There are many IP addresses.

The public IP address, that you see from ipchicken.com or whatever, is associated with your Internet gateway, and is assigned by your ISP. Your Internet gateway should be a router/firewall, but it might be your computer if you're still on dialup. If you're on a LAN, your computer has a local IP address, that you see by typing ipconfig (Windows) or ifconfig (Linux) at command line. If you're using a VPN or Tor, your public IP address becomes that of its exit node.

It sounds like OP's son's computer is a bot, being rented out as a proxy. Or maybe OP's son is running a Tor exit relay.

~ Off Topic Remarks Removed ~

 

I wonder how long it took the "local" police to identify the physical address. I guess they must act swiftly if they want to prevent a suicide.

I hope it was no bogus by his very own son.

 

The simplest solution is usually the correct one. Talk to your son and see if he posted a bogus note.