The UK has the third highest rate of spyware infection in the world, according to research conducted by IT security firm, Webroot.

With up to 18 infections per machine, the epidemic is said to be costing the country's businesses £445m in lost time and productivity.

Richard Stiennon, Webroot's vice president of threat research, says the problem of spyware has grown quickly because people are downloading adware and getting infected with it.

'From that they get pop-ups, for which they often installed things like Google ad-blockers, without trying to get the offending program off their systems. So the spyware remains, booting up from start up directories, and trying to connect to the internet all the time, watching what you browse and reporting its data,' he said.

Stiennon says infection in the UK is high because a lot of the spyware has been designed specifically for English countries. The only places with higher rates of infection are the USA and Thailand.

'The US has always been the epicentre of spyware and adware, so the UK has been a victim of speaking and understanding the same language that is being attacked in the first place,' he said.

'However, we are starting to see spyware being written in Farsi, as well as Asian and Indian languages, so we know the writers of these programs are branching out and looking to exploit new areas to help make profits.'