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According to some recent research 88% of computers connected to the internet are infected with one or more spyware programs.

Spyware is just one of a whole class of software, generally known as Malware, designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system, without the owner's consent.

There is an alphabet soup of names for the different types of malware, the most common being: Virus, Worm, Trojan, Backdoor, Spyware, Keylogger and Browser Hijacks.

The purpose of malware is generally one or more of the following: Damage your data possibly deleting all of your files; Steal some part of your identity like your credit card details; Cause damage to third parties by for example attacking other computers.

What can the ordinary computer user do to protect themselves from such unpleasant and unwanted guests on their PC? The three most important defences that can be deployed are: Firewall, Anti Virus and Updates.

A firewall prevents access to your machine from the Internet. This can be in software or provided by a router. Anti Virus software scans emails and files on your computer for a range of threats but some do not target malware. Keep your subscription and virus definitions up-to-date. Updates protect your computer by fixing bugs in the software that can be exploited by malware. Keep your patches up-to-date.

Do not disable your firewall and anti-virus protection for any length of time.

Remember that it is much easier to keep malware out of your machine than to remove it once there.