Anyone who shares his or her name with a famous celebrity would probably feel happy. Similarly, those who have the same name as that of some criminal in the news would feel upset. But how would they feel if they have malware namesakes spreading in the wild?

Yamada-san of Japan TrendLabs must have had a hard time when the Yamada malware — which Trend Micro detects as TROJ_MELLPON.A was discovered in the spring of 2005. Yamada-san was not the only one though, as a number of similar malware and spyware have sprung out since then, such as the following:

• The Yamada Alternative (which Trend Micro detects as BKDR_AGENT.BOG)
• Koizumi (TROJ_DELF.AXE)
• Harada (TSPY_HARADONG.A)
• Kameda (TSPY_SUFIAGE.G)

Recently, a Trojan known as Taniguchi was discovered spreading in Japan. Reports indicate that this Trojan usually arrives with illegal or pirated copies of certain applications that are shared via Winny, a popular peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing application in the said country. Trend Micro detects this malware as TROJ_TANIGU.A.

Note that TROJ_TANIGU.A is not the first malware that comes with pirated software. Thus, it is always recommended that users install legitimate software copies on their systems to avoid possible infection.