How To: Disable MacDefender and MacProtector
MacDefender and MacProtector are the latest in “anti-virus” protections that are actually malicious themselves. These are targeted towards Macs specifically, but are NOT virus. These are trojans, and can be picked up by visiting malicious sites.
To disable:
As an admin user (most are by default)
Open up Terminal and type: sudo killall MacDefender
Substitute MacProtector if that’s the version affecting your computer.
The password will be your login password.
Then type: sudo -u $username> defaults write com.apple.Safari AutoOpenSafeDownloads -bool false
Replace the word username with your login name; or if you don’t know it, look to the left in terminal.
Hit enter, it should not ask for a password for the second time. This will keep the application from downloading again.
Once that has happened, be sure to visit http://adobe.com/flash and update your Flash software to help block these.
The last step is to use Spotlight to search your computer for the bad app. Once you find it, be sure to throw it into the Trash, then Empty the Trash.