leaders are resisting the consumerization of IT and the trend of bringing your own device (BYOD) to work is myth. On the contrary, more and more people are embracing these notions and trying to incorporate them into the workday, according to a recent study.

Several recent reports have indicated that organizations are still resisting consumerization of IT or are just beginning to allow employees to use their personal devices at work. However, that may not be the case, as most organizations are embracing the trend and have already figured out ways to incorporate it within the business, according to a Jan. 25 study by Avanade.

Approximately 60 percent of companies are adapting their IT infrastructure to accommodate employees’ personal devices instead of restricting how employees can use them, Avanade found. Nearly 90 percent of the business leaders said they are aware that employees are already using personal technology for work purposes, and 65 percent of C-level executives in the survey consider the growing use of employee-owned technology as a top priority in their organization.

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There are so many computer viruses flying around out there that they can’t help bumping into one other while wreaking havoc on our computers. In fact, virus writers account for this. In order to protect and defend a hard-won compromised computer, some virus writers actually install their own antivirus programs after they infect a PC. That way, another bad guy can’t come along and hijack an already hijacked machine, said Catalin Cosoi, head of the Online Threats Lab at BitDefender, based in Romania.

But what happens when an already-infected machine is attacked by a virus that inserts code into every executable file it finds on a machine? What if a virus infects a virus?

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In all, vendors shipped 158.5 million smartphones during the quarter, up 57 percent from 101.2 million units during the same quarter a year ago, compared with 120.2 million PCs. Smartphones led for the full year 2011, as well, on shipments of 487.7 million units to 414.6 million PCs. Of those PC units, 63.2 million were tablets.

“Smartphone shipments overtaking those of client PCs should be seen as a significant milestone,” Canalys analyst Chris Jones said in a statement. “In the space of a few years, smartphones have grown from being a niche product segment at the high-end of the mobile phone market to becoming a truly mass-market proposition.”

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The intended purpose of a strategic plan is to be a communication tool on the way forward for IT based on business strategy. Unfortunately, the typical strategic plan is merely a list of tactical projects for infrastructure lifecycle refresh and vendor upgrades for the coming period. Wireless upgrade here, iPads there, ERP projects X-Y-Z, and LMS initiatives. This is why the business yawns at your strategic vision and why the business resists giving the chief information officer a more strategic role in the business.

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The new forecast calls for companies and governments to spend a combined $3.8 trillion on information technology, which would amount to growth of 3.7 percent from 2011. The previous forecast had called for growth of 4.6 percent.

For perspective, the difference on a dollar basis is about $100 billion, which is certainly real money, but when you consider the various puts and takes affecting the projected spend, it makes a certain amount of sense.

Gartner says that all four of the major technology sectors it tracks — computing hardware, enterprise software, IT services, and telecom equipment and services — will see their growth rates slow this year.

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The folks in Redmond just started offering the SkyDrive app for iPhone, and the 25GB carrot is a tempting one.

Those 25GBs are a bigger offering than Apple’s iCloud, which gives users 5GB of storage free. Box.net, another popular service, also offers 5GB storage for free; Dropbox does 2GB free.

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The NTSB’s recommendation specifically calls for all 50 states and Washington D.C. to ban all non-emergency use of portable electronic devices (other than those designed to support the driving task) for all drivers. The board also is urging the use of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) model of high-visibility enforcement to support these bans and implementation of targeted communication campaigns to inform motorists of the new law and heightened enforcement.

“According to NHTSA, more than 3,000 people lost their lives last year in distraction-related accidents,” NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said in a statement. “It is time for all of us to stand up for safety by turning off electronic devices when driving. No call, no text, no update, is worth a human life.”

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A survey of 5,500 IT professionals around the world found that more than half the organizations were still giving employees access to sensitive, confidential data they didn’t need to perform their jobs, Ponemon Institute said in a report released Dec. 12. The survey looked at professionals in a variety of IT roles, such as operations and security management, in 13 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

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More than 10,000 people in 12 countries, including 1,000 from the United States, were surveyed by Lieberman Researcher Group and Newspoll in the latest Unisys Security Index, released Nov. 2. While there were some variations between countries, the overall trends of consumers punishing organizations for breaches by closing accounts or taking legal action was consistent across all 12 countries, according to Unisys.

About 87 percent said they’d change the password protecting the account with the organization after a breach while 76 percent they would close the account altogether. More than half, or about 53 percent, of the respondents said they’re willing to sue the organization after the data was compromise. Nearly 65 percent of the respondents said they would publicly expose a company for not safeguarding personal data in the event of a breach.

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