Every once in a while someone says something that is just too funny and I've decided to share one with you. Trend Micro issued a press release today about how focused they are on small business security. In it, they make the point that small businesses rely on "common sense" to secure data. Oh, horror of horrors! The sky is falling! Um, dare I point out that I would rather have someone protect data using common sense than protect data not using common sense?

You gotta just sit back and laugh. Hey, this is what statistics are for -- so companies can pervert them into saying what they want to say in a press release.

For your entertainment, here's the press release:

By the numbers, the state of security for small businesses in America is in peril. According to a recent survey conducted by Visa USA and the NFIB, 57% of small businesses do not consider securing customer data something that requires formal planning, and 39% said they rely on common sense to keep data safe. AT&T finds that 29% of small businesses have an employee who handles computer security as part of his or her job, and another 24% of small businesses have hired an outside consultant to handle security. Microsoft finds that 70% of small firms that suffer a big loss of company information go out of business within a year.

Trend Micro recognizes the concern that small businesses have for their precious data, the risks they take on a daily basis and what a data loss can mean to a small business with only a handful of customers and fewer security resources to their name. Trend Micro is committed to reducing the risk and worry small businesses experience as they expand their business onto the Internet while criminals target them on the Web and on their own PCs.

Please let me know your availability to talk to executives about the company’s commitment to SMBs and the risks companies are facing in this connected business environment that can be a great competitive advantage and still its greatest liability.

So I want you to stop using common sense to protect data! That's right. If it's not in a written policy that you need to protect it, then stop protecting it. There is no place for common sense in information security.

All kidding aside, the belief that common sense is a bad thing sounds a lot to me like Trend Micro doesn't understand small business in the least. They've accomplished the exact opposite of their intentions on this one. After all, the belief that data isn't protected without a written policy and that common sense is detrimental to data security sounds awfully like a vendor that is focused on large enterprises that would never do anything without a written policy. I'd have to call Trend woefully out of touch with this one.

Trend Micro does in fact make some good products which I've reviewed for PC Magazine and given positive reviews.  They're not a bad company at all and I'm sure plenty of small businesses run their security software. The wording of this press release just cracked me up, and the fact that someone got paid a lot of money to do the study and someone else got paid to write the press release is even funnier.

Whatever you do, DON'T USE COMMON SENSE WHEN PROTECTING DATA!!!!