Check out this press release I got yesterday from a company that makes patch agent software. You know the stuff, endpoint agents that handle updating all manner of applications on a box. Name obfuscated to ACME to protect the guilty:

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Microsoft is planning to release a big gift for IT administrators on Patch Tuesday - a dozen security bulletins with nine critical and three important.

Just in time for Valentine's day? Ok, that's tenuous at best. The press release then goes on as such: (Bold added.)

The fact that at least five of the vulnerabilities target the Microsoft applications further validates ACME's claims that hackers are moving up the application stack to focus less on attacking the operating system and exploiting the application layer.

Since when has pointing out something completely f&*king obvious been a "claim"? A deaf, blind, mentally handicapped child could tell you vulnerability research -- from good guys and bad -- is moving up the application stack. THIS IS NOT NEW.

Here's the killer part:

ACME further predicts that hackers with profit in mind will increasingly target applications beyond Microsoft platforms.

So, here we have a company that's using the release of several patches by Microsoft as an indication that hackers are targeting non-Microsoft products? Seriously: WTF?

Attempts to piggy-back press releases on to larger events -- like the release of a bunch of patches from MS -- can work. A researcher might know something particularly important about one of the disclosed vulnerabilities, for example. But this e-mailed press release is nothing more than a waste of space.

"Hey, I know, if we tie Microsoft's release of patches close to Valentines day to Valentines day, we'll get written up! And if we make a 'claim' that's bleedingly obvious to all and sundry and about 12 months out of date, we'll look really clever. We'll throw in one slightly dubious and unsupported claim which suggests non Microsoft products are increasingly being targeted by hackers, because if people believe this they're more likely to buy our products, then voila! Our press release is served."

Sad. Lame.