Are you a regular internet user? Do you have an email account? If so, there is pretty good chance that you'll get infected with spyware at some point and with the number of spyware and adware programs increasing every day, the chance of your computer being brought to its knees by one of these nasty little buggers is becoming more and more likely.

Thankfully, there are some things you can do (or not do) starting today that can help drastically reduce the chance you'll get infected with spyware.

1. Don't open any email attachments that you don't know who it is from.

I know you've heard this one before but this is one of the most important things you can do if you want to avoid spyware infection. If you have any suspicion at all of an email attachment not being legitimate, the best thing you can do is to simply not open it up. Even if it looks like it is from your best friend or a family member, there are spyware programs out there that can read your contact list or address book and generate fake emails to everyone listed.

2. Don't click on the Pop Ups that say "You have spyware - Click here to scan!" or anything similiar.

These pop ups are designed to trick you. Instead of actually scanning your PC for spyware, what really happens is that when you click on the link in the pop up you are essentially clicking on a link that will install spyware on your PC.

3. Pornography is a big no-no

Pornographic websites comprise the largest portion of the internet pie by sheer number of sites, and 9 times out 10 when you visit a pornographic website you are asking for spyware to be downloaded and installed on your PC.

4. Stay away from Bit torrents

Without even going into why stealing is not only wrong but also illegal, there is simply no way to know if what you are trying to download is actually what you are getting when you are downloading bit torrents from p2p sharing newtorks such as Kazaa and Limewire. Many times, you'll open up the file you downloaded and it won't work and you may just shrug it off and search for another one, but what really happens is that evne though you think nothing is happening when you clicked on the download spyware is being installed on your computer in the background.

5. Get Yourself a Good Antispyware Program

Did you know that there are programs out there that scan the internet for computers that are connected so that they can target them for a spyware download? The reality is that no matter how diligent you are when surfing the internet and going through your email inbox, spyware can still find its way onto your computer to make your computer miserably slow. The only way that you can truly keep spyware off of your computer is to run an antispyware program that not only allows to scan and clean your computer, but also runs in the background and offers Real-time protection.

Spyware is all over the internet and your inbox and with each passing day, spyware hackers are becoming more devious in the way that they entice you to download their nasty software. By exercising some caution, avoiding activities and websites that are known to install spyware and most importantly, getting yourself a good antispyware program you can avoid the headaches of trying to work on a spyware infested computer.