A single spyware infection on a work computer can impair the performance of a small business employee for two-and-a-half days, it has been claimed.

According to research carried out by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CTIA), users of spyware-infected PCs said they lived with the problem for more than two full work days before getting it repaired, something which can impact on an employee productivity.

The survey, also found that one in four computer users reported a spyware infection during the past six months, one-third of these were multiple infections.

Users estimated that their productivity was reduced by up to 32 per cent when their computer was infected by spyware.

Yesterday, Computerweekly.com reported comments by Suleyman Anil, head of the Nato Computer Incident Response Capability Coordination Centre, who claimed that there is no excuse for companies not to have up-to-date IT security measures in place.

He pointed out there are a number of dependable solutions available.

According to a recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent) In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'.