Mega-D botnet stronger than Storm, promotes male sexual pills

A new botnet spamming male sexual enhancement pill promotions has overtaken the notorious Storm worm botnet as the ‘largest single source of the world’s spam’, security vendor Marshal has warned.

Dubbed Mega-D, the botnet currently accounts for 32 percent of all spam, 11 percent more than the Storm botnet which peaked at 21 percent in September 2007.

The spam campaign heavily promotes several pharmaceutical products including Herbal King, Express Herbals, and VPXL.

It is a blended threat, the emails trick users into installing Mega-D, said Bradley Anstis, vice-president of products at Marshal.

It is also using news headlines to trick victims into opening the spam, a technique synonymous with the Storm worm. The recent death of Australian actor Heath Ledger has also been used as a ploy, he added.

“[Mega-D] probably started about four months ago and it’s been steadily increasing since then,” said Anstis. “It is possible that the individuals behind the Storm botnet are responsible for one or more of these other botnets."