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Creating a Research Agenda

by UW alumni Justin Reedy, Ph.D., Communication, and Madhavi Murty, Ph.D., Communication, in conversation with UW graduate students

Creating a research agenda should be a major goal for all graduate students—regardless of theoretical interests, methodological preferences, or career aspirations. A research agenda helps you orient yourself toward both short- and long-term goals; it will guide your selection of classes, help you decide which academic conferences (and within those, which specific divisions) to engage in, and steer you in recruiting mentors and research collaborators.

What is a research agenda?  It’s a plan and a focus on issues and ideas in a subset of your field. You cannot study everything in your field during your time in graduate school, so decide what to focus on now, and what to defer until another day.

Research agendas are not set in concrete;  they naturally change over time as your knowledge grows and as new research questions emerge.

Don’t be intimidated.  Many students may start a graduate program with only a few ideas of areas they would like to study, or perhaps a few general research questions. Graduate courses, conversations with faculty and fellow students, and time spent reading the literature in the field can help you start to form a research agenda out of those ideas or research questions.

How to get started

• Talk with faculty members about your general interests. Use faculty as a resource to find out which topics are over-studied and where additional work is needed.
• If there are students with similar or overlapping interests, get their perspectives as well.
• Read a great deal, even in the early weeks of your graduate work. Be open to reading research outside your immediate areas of interests and seeing how they link to your own areas.
• Ask faculty for reading lists or copies of syllabi. Such resources help you familiarize yourself with the research already done in areas that interest you. Be sure to follow up on citations that are interesting or intriguing.
• Identify key authors relevant to your interests. Read their scholarship and understand the work that has informed their research.

Advancing your agenda

• Identify courses that will help advance your research agenda—both in terms of specific knowledge about the issues and relevant methods. Remember that the title of a class might not always fully describe it, so contact the professor to find out more about class content.
• Look both inside and outside the department for classes—and look outside especially in your second year in the program. Graduate students in interdisciplinary fields, for example, may find very valuable classes in diverse departments.
• Think specifically about the research questions you want to ask, and think about how you will answer them. Then pick courses to help you in reaching this goal.
• Try to use class assignments to advance your research agenda. If possible, use each seminar paper as a way to focus on a specific part of your overall agenda —whether it be a literature review or a proposal for a study.
• Don’t be afraid to take a chance on a course that seems somewhat outside of your agenda or your comfort zone. If the topics or research methods covered in the course draw your interest, you could find a way to incorporate those into your overarching research agenda.

Conference papers, colloquia, and research articles

• Ask faculty members if they have research projects in which you can participate.
• Work with more than one faculty member. Different faculty members provide different perspectives even if they are interested in the same concepts.
• Talk to faculty and other graduate students about conferences you should attend (and conference paper deadlines). Use conference paper deadlines to pace your own research production.
• Present your work at conferences, listen to others’ ideas, and solicit feedback on your research.
• Consider working towards the publication of your papers. With enough feedback and guidance from faculty, fellow graduate students, and colleagues in the field, what starts out as a seminar or conference paper could turn into a journal article or book chapter.
• Attend talks and colloquia on campus—both inside and outside your department. These talks can help you generate research ideas and help you see your research in a new light.
• Recruit others to work with you on projects. Student collaborations are especially fruitful when the constituent members have similar interests, but bring different yet complementary perspectives and skills to the endeavor.

Be active: Be a part of the conversation in your field!

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Developing a research agenda

Y our research agenda plays a critical role in designing and planning your scholarly research and publication activities. Establishing your research agenda means deciding which research areas you will explore and the methodologies you will employ, then letting these guide your research activities. As we have all probably heard from our own graduate school professors, it is impossible to study everything in your field, and you must focus on topics that prove interesting to you and present solid publishing opportunities. Tenure committees generally like andriol bodybuilding to see assistant professors establish a consistent line of research or a few complementary lines of research, comprising their research agenda. Because of this, you should avoid a scattershot approach to research by developing a clear agenda and following it in your scholarly activities. In today’s post, I will describe the value of a research agenda and how to go about developing a research agenda.

There are several philosophical and practical reasons to establish your research agenda early in your career.

First, universities want to see that you are working toward or have achieved a national reputation in your field of expertise. A tightly focused research agenda helps achieve this desired prominence through specialty in a specific area. If your research bounces around among a variety of relatively disconnected projects, it becomes difficult for your committee, and particularly external reviewers, to establish and validate your areas of expertise.

Additionally, your work on multiple similar research studies creates significant efficiencies for you. For example, you do not need to learn a new body of research in order to write your literature reviews, and you are already familiar with journals that publish on your topic. Overall, if you maintain consistency with your topic, you can more easily and quickly publish your research. 

Many early career faculty that I have worked with do not have a single line of inquiry forming their research agenda.

Tenure committees and external reviewers understand this; they know that you may not have a single, isolated line of academic exploration. They realize that prospective candidates may have, for example, two related concepts that they studied extensively in graduate school, worked on as part of a laboratory, or which were part of their dissertation.  

As long as you can articulate each line of inquiry, describe the relationships between each line, and demonstrate your expertise in the two (or at most three) lines of academic inquiry, most review committees will find this appropriate.

However, if your research appears to be a collection of random projects lacking a common thread, tenure committees may rightly question whether you have demonstrated expertise and developed the level of national reputation necessary to achieve tenure.

For pre-tenure faculty struggling to articulate their own research agendas, I recommend studying the careers of major researchers in your field.

To do this, get a copy of the vita of a significant and well-respected researcher.

Next, look at the years prior to when this established scholar received tenure–you will see how their line of research progressed throughout their career.

In academic research, it takes a while to build up the knowledge and data to answer specific questions. Over time, as an academic’s methodologies advance and their knowledge base grows, you will likely see their research questions change.

When looking at a full professor with 25 years of research experience, for example, many pre-tenure faculty fail to fully appreciate how research agendas evolve. These professors did not magically exit graduate school with the focus and expertise they possess today. By studying the early years of prominent researchers, you can learn how their agendas evolved and grew over time, which can help you compose your own research agenda.

In addition, examining the research agenda of a senior colleague in your field can help show how they bring disparate ideas together.

Think about it: There are many ideas that may seem inseparable today, but this may not have been the case at the early part of the expert’s career.

When studying a senior professor’s research agenda, you can begin to see the connections and the concepts that anchor an entire research career.

While the context, the theoretical framing, and methodological approaches may be different throughout the years, the common underlying themes that form the foundation of their research agenda will become apparent.

Pre-tenure faculty should take time to delineate these central concepts in their own work early in their careers, working to both articulate and foreground them in the research they will undertake during the pre-tenure years.

Just as a meeting agenda provides a list of decision points for discussion, a research agenda provides a framework for making decisions about research activities.

During the first few years as a faculty member, it is tempting to jump at any research opportunity that comes along. When you are worried about having a significant number of publications, any potential promise of publication looks attractive. You will need a lens through which to determine whether to pursue any given opportunity.

A strong and clearly articulated research agenda can serve this purpose, providing boundaries for scholarly activities and publishing.

New projects and initiatives may easily capture your attention, but evaluating a new research opportunity’s relationship to the research agenda will help you better consider the worthiness of a project.

Only if a new opportunity isin line with your research agenda should you then ask more nuanced questions such as the amount of time it requires or the its value to tenure review committees.  

Even if the opportunity provides access to the top journal in your field or to a prestigious conference, I would recommend thinking twice and discussing with mentors before pursuing a publication not in line with your research agenda.

Establishing a research agenda and sharing it with colleagues lays the groundwork for all the research activities you will undertake during your pre-tenure years.

This post is an excerpt from my book, How to Get Tenure: Strategies for Successfully Navigating the Process (Routledge, 2019).

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• Published: 02 March 2020

PAEDIATRIC RHEUMATOLOGY

Can we implement the new research agenda for mental health?

• Lis Cordingley   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7675-240X 1 &
• Rebecca Rachael Lee   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4559-1647 2  

Nature Reviews Rheumatology volume  16 ,  pages 191–192 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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• Paediatric research
• Paediatric rheumatic diseases

Children and young people with rheumatic diseases face considerable challenges to their mental health, yet the research guiding prevention and intervention strategies is limited. A new research agenda provides an important step forward by highlighting important issues, but can these research priorities be addressed within the paediatric rheumatology health-care context?

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Acknowledgements

The work of the authors was supported by the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre Funding Scheme and by the National Institute for Health Research Manchester Biomedical Research Centre. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the National Institute for Health Research or the Department of Health. R.R.L. is in receipt of a Foundation Fellowship Award from Versus Arthritis UK (award number 22433).

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Cordingley, L., Lee, R.R. Can we implement the new research agenda for mental health?. Nat Rev Rheumatol 16 , 191–192 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41584-020-0399-z

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Article link copied, launch of our new research agenda.

Today we are proud to launch our exciting new research agenda to guide our work until 2030. Through our research agenda, we will further the science of learning variability to provide quality learning opportunities to every child.

Advancing Research on Learning Variability

Childhood is full of variability – within individuals, within groups, and across contexts – yet education often provides one-size-fits-all instruction aimed at the average student. The goal of our new research agenda is to shift research, education and policymaking towards embracing learning variability.

We will achieve this through asking a set of transformative questions to frame the research activities we support. We believe these questions have the potential to unlock new ways of thinking about and adapting to learning variability.

Read the full research agenda.

European Innovation Agenda on the move: Commission presents progress on actions supporting home-grown innovation

Less than two years after its launch, the New European Innovation Agenda (NEIA) is in full swing. According to a report published today by the Commission, 13 out of its 25 actions have been completed while another 12 are ongoing. This ambitious agenda aims at boosting deep tech innovation and untapping innovation potential in Europe through a variety of actions in five flagship areas and with a central role of the European Innovation Council (EIC), as well as the European Institute for Innovation and technology (EIT).

Key deliverables include:

• new Directives proposed in access to finance for scale-ups and SMEs (Listing Act and Debt Equity Bias Reduction Allowance). These will allow innovative companies to be listed more easily in stock markets and encourage them to use equity financing, instead of debt financing
• actions to attract institutional investors (such as pension funds and insurance companies) in scale-up venture capital funds. This will increase the amount of capital that venture capital funds can invest in innovative companies
• initiatives to promote innovation procurement and experimentation spaces (such as regulatory sandboxes). These will provide additional support to innovative companies and help them in the regulatory process
• the reinforcement of innovation ecosystems and addressing the innovation divide through the development of innovation-oriented networks of regions (Regional Innovation Valleys , see below), and of Universities (Erasmus Plus Alliances for Innovation). Furthermore, the EIC will support a new network of promising scale-ups to accelerate their growth (EIC Scale-up 100 Club)
• skills development through the Deep Tech Talent Initiative of the EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology), where 1 million people will receive training opportunities in Europe; or the Innovation Talent Pool platform , that will  facilitate mobility of skilled individuals towards and within Europe through international recruitment

Iliana Ivanova, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth , said ,

"The New European Innovation Agenda is our key tool for boosting and promoting home-grown innovation in the EU. We can be proud of what we have already achieved in the past two years, and I look forward to seeing the agenda deliver on the remaining commitments as we move forward.”

In addition to the 25 actions of the New European Innovation Agenda, the report includes measures announced by Member States and Associated Countries in support of the NEIA ranging from AI academies to Free Technological zones, from Observatories on the startups to special visa for researchers, to national innovation laws to funding programmes. Over 200 actions have been mapped by the EIC Forum, where representatives of Member States and Associated Countries present and discuss innovation policies and instruments.

The above-mentioned actions are in addition to a number of innovation-related initiatives launched by the Commission in sectoral policies such as the green and digital transition, energy, space, health etc.

In addition, more than 150 regions are on track to become Regional Innovation Valleys. The Commission plans to announce the names of these regions in Summer 2024. More than 250 innovation stakeholders in these regions are expected to be granted a total of over €115 million of EU funding and committed to co-fund another €77 million from private and public sources.

On the New European Innovation Agenda

Innovation is a cross-cutting priority contributing to both the green and digital transition, European competitiveness, economic security and open strategic autonomy. In July 2022 the Commission launched the NEIA to position Europe at the forefront of the new wave of deep tech innovation.  The measures put forward in the NEIA, grouped under five flagship areas, aim at leveraging the strengths of the EU’s Single Market, industrial base, talents, stable institutions and democratic societies to drive deep tech innovation in Europe, and deliver on the opportunities offered by the twin transition and the need for economic security and future strategic autonomy. This is complemented by the work on European Research Area (ERA) aiming to build a true European single market for research and innovation.

The toolkit of EU innovation policy has expanded over the years. With its Innovative Europe pillar, Horizon Europe has given rise to new tools to support start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs.

In particular, the European Innovation Council (EIC), a flagship EUR 10 billion initiative, has been named “the Unicorns factory” for its capacity to identify, support and scale start-ups and other innovative companies in key areas such as AI, Advanced Materials, Battery Technologies, Biotechnology, Hydrogen, Quantum and Semiconductors, also by the means of equity via the EIC Fund. Through the EIC Accelerator the EIC Fund has approved investments of well over EUR 1 billion in over 200 of such companies since its establishment, making it the most active start-up investor in Europe.

Horizon Europe also funds the European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE ) projects (including the new “Regional Innovation Valleys” and the activities of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) . Since its creation (2008) the EIT has been a driver of the research, innovation and education knowledge triangle integration. With its strong education dimension, EIT has also provided opportunities for students, innovators, and entrepreneurs across Europe. The EIT comprises the long-term European partnerships, known as Knowledge and Innovation Communities (EIT KICs), that power innovation and entrepreneurship in areas such as climate change, sustainable energy, health, food, manufacturing, raw materials, digitalisation, urban mobility or culture and creativity. The EIT Deep Tech Talent Initiative , a flagship under the NEIA, aims at training 1 million people in various deep tech domains by the end of 2025, with currently more than 750.000 talents pledged to be trained already.

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Developing a research agenda: contributing new knowledge via intent and focus

• Published: 29 December 2013
• Volume 26 , pages 54–68, ( 2014 )

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• Peggy A. Ertmer 1 &
• Krista D. Glazewski 2  

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It is generally believed that new PhD graduates begin their first faculty positions having already outlined a research agenda that will guide their work during the next several years of their careers. Yet very little guidance is provided regarding how to accomplish this important task. In fact, little explanation is provided about what, exactly, a research agenda is. In this paper, we define a research agenda and discuss why it is important for scholars to establish one. We discuss how strong research questions provide the foundation for a strong research agenda and provide specific ideas for articulating one’s contributions to the field. We end with some primary considerations involved in accomplishing this important task, including suggestions for how to determine your specific focus, interest, community, and context.

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Ertmer, P.A., Glazewski, K.D. Developing a research agenda: contributing new knowledge via intent and focus. J Comput High Educ 26 , 54–68 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-013-9076-4

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The United States Department of Defense Multidisciplinary Research Program of the University Research Initiative (MURI) Funding Opportunity Announcement for FY2025 is here! https://www.nre.navy.mil/work-with-us/funding-opportunities/fiscal-year-fy-2025-department-defense-multidisciplinary  MURI supports basic research in science and engineering at U.S. institutions of higher education (universities) that is of potential interest to DoD. The program is focused on multidisciplinary research efforts where more than one traditional discipline interacts to provide rapid advances in scientific areas of interest to the DoD. White papers due by: 17 May 2024 (5 PM EST) Full proposals accepted until: 6 Sept 2024 (5 PM EST)

Master of Genetic Counseling

Genetic counseling research symposium 2024.

Posted by Emily Waltenbaugh on Thursday, February 29, 2024 in Uncategorized .

Hosted by the Master of Genetic Counseling degree program at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, the inaugural Genetic Counseling Research Symposium will feature talks from guest speakers and presentations from the Vandy MGC class of 2024, the program’s research fellows, and the first participant in the new Advanced Research Training for Genetic Counselors (ART-GC).

Friday, April 5, 2024

8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., vu light hall 202, register  by march 22, 2024, featured speakers, robin hayeems, phd.

Dr. Hayeems is an associate professor at the University of Toronto and scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. She studies the delivery, evaluation and governance of genomic screening and diagnostic tools in the prenatal, newborn, and early childhood periods.

Jehannine Austin, PhD, MSc

Dr. Austin is the Canada Research Chair in Translational Psychiatric Genomics at the University of British Columbia. They  use a clinical genetics perspective to inform development of novel interventions that can improve outcomes for individuals with psychiatric disorders and support their families.

Symposium Agenda

Welcome session.

• 8:00 – 9:00 a.m., Breakfast and Registration
• 9:00 a.m., Opening Remarks by Vanderbilt Genetics Institute Director Nancy Cox, PhD, and MGC Program Director Martha Dudek, MS, CGC

Session 1: Student Presentations and Invited Guest Speaker

• 9:15 a.m. – Guest speaker Robyn Hayeems, PhD
• 10:15 – 10:30 a.m. – Break
• 10:30 – 10:50 a.m. – Cecilia Kessler, introduction by Mackenzie Mosera, presentation and questions
• 10:50 – 11:10 a.m. – Lianna Paul, introduction by Lucas Richter, presentation and questions
• 11:10 – 11:30 a.m. – Mikaela Bradley, introduction by Emily McQuillen, presentation and questions
• 11:30 – 11:50 a.m. – Joan Kornkven, introduction by Terry Jo Bichell, presentation and questions
• 12:00 – 1:15 p.m., lunch

Session 2: Student Presentations and Invited Guest Speaker

• 1:15 – 1:35 p.m. – Makenna Martin, introduction by Kate Mittendorf, presentation and questions
• 1:35 – 1:55 p.m. – Serena Fleming, introduction by JaLisa Decker, presentation and questions
• 1:55 – 2:15 p.m. – Mary Hurley, introduction by Katie Lang, presentation and questions
• 2:15 – 2:30 p.m. – Break
• 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. – Guest speaker Jeahannine Austin, PhD

Session 3: FIGOR & ART-GC Scholar Presentations

• 3:30 – 4:00 p.m. – Lucas Richter, MM, CGC
• 4:00 – 4:25 p.m. – Jill Slamon, MA, MS, CGC
• 4:25 – 4:45 p.m. – Toni Lewis, MS
• 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. – Reception, Light Hall north lobby

Support for the symposium is included in grant funding (1R25HG012915) awarded to MGC Director Martha Dudek and VGI Director Nancy Cox, PhD, in 2023 by the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health to establish a research fellowship for genetic counselors that will prepare them to contribute more fully to the advancement of personalized medicine.

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Agenda Ransomware Propagates to vCenters and ESXi via Custom PowerShell Script

This blog entry discusses the Agenda ransomware group's use of its latest Rust variant to propagate to VMWare vCenter and ESXi servers.

By: Arianne Dela Cruz, Raymart Yambot, Raighen Sanchez, Darrel Tristan Virtusio March 26, 2024 Read time:  ( words)

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Since its discovery in 2022 , the Agenda Ransomware group  (also known as Qilin) has been active and in development. Agenda, which Trend Micro tracks as Water Galura, continues infecting victims globally with the US, Argentina, and Australia, and Thailand being among its top targets (based on the threat actor’s leak site data). Meanwhile the Agenda ransomware was used to target several industries, such as finance and law.

Furthermore, based on Trend threat intelligence data, Agenda ransomware detections increased beginning December 2023, in contrast to the number of detections in November, which shows that its operators are either becoming more active, or are reaching a greater number of targets.

We recently encountered updated versions of the ransomware, specifically for its Rust variant . Based on what we’ve observed, Agenda ransomware group uses Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tools, as well as Cobalt Strike for deployment of the ransomware binary. As for the Agenda ransomware executable, it can also propagate via PsExec and SecureShell, while also making use of different vulnerable SYS drivers for defense evasion.   

T1059.003 Command and Scripting Interpreter The most recent version of the Agenda ransomware contains multiple command-line arguments. The table below shows a comparison of the arguments we encountered last July 2023 compared to the version we found in February 2024. Commands in bold text are changes from previous versions.

Table 1. Agenda Rust command-line Arguments

Lateral Movement

T1021.004 Remote Services – SSH

When executed with the command-line --spread-vcenter , Agenda will use a custom PowerShell script embedded in the binary to propagate across VMWare vCenter and ESXi servers. This can potentially impact the virtual machines and even the whole virtual infrastructure, leading to data and financial loss, as well as the disruption of services running on virtual environments.

To execute, Agenda requires users to input their credentials in the target vCenter or ESXi host, and specify the path of the ESXi binary to propagate. Since this is executed in an interactive shell, this may indicate that the threat actors are the ones who will input these credentials into the machine upon deployment.

The PowerShell script is executed in-memory as a memory stream on a running PowerShell process, making its execution fileless (since the script will not be present in the machine).

Once loaded, the script first checks if its dependencies are installed:

Afterwards, it connects to the host names specified by the attacker and changes the root password for all ESXi hosts. The new password will be the one required by Agenda for execution. This effectively prevents victims from accessing the compromised host even after encryption is done.

SSH would then be enabled for file transfer.

Once SSH is enabled, it would proceed with creating an SSH session that will be used to upload the ESXi binary:

After a successful upload, the payload will be executed on the target host, effectively compromising the system.

T1570 Lateral Tool Transfer

Agenda has also changed its propagation command-line to --spread , making it more evident. To do this, PsExec is dropped in the following path:

%User Temp%\{random}.exe

Next, it will execute the PsExec file using the following command:

"cmd" /C %User Temp%\{random}.exe -accepteula \\ -c -f -h -d "{Malware File Path}" --password {Password required}--spread {host name} --spread-process

T1486 Data Encrypted for Impact

Agenda also added a feature to print ransom notes on connected printers. It copies the ransom note inl %User Temp% \{Generated file name}, and executes the following commands:

  “powershell" -Command "Get-Printer | Format-List Name,DriverName – used to get printer drivers.

"powershell" -Command " Timeout /T '0' ; Get-Content -Path '%User Temp%\{Generated file name}' | Out-Printer -Name '{Printer Name}' "

The latter command is used to print the ransom note on a specified printer.

Defense Evasion

T1480 Execution Guardrails

The latest version of Agenda can now terminate VMclusters (a group of Virtual Machines/ESXi hosts configured to share resources). It does so by executing the following commands:

·       PowerShell -Command “Stop-Cluster -Force”

T1211 Exploitation for Defense Evasion

From our recent encounters with Agenda, we observed malicious actors employing the Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) technique to evade detection by security systems. BYOVD is not new and has been abused by multiple threat groups such as the Kasseika ransomware (using a signed Martini.sys driver), the Akira ransomware group, and the AvosLocker ransomware group .

In the Agenda ransomware’s case, we saw that for each infection chain, it appears to be leveraging different vulnerable drivers to disable different security tools.

Some drivers we have observed being leveraged by the Agenda ransomware is YDark , a publicly available tool designed for kernel manipulation, as well as Spyboy’s Terminator tool used to bypass AVs and EDRs (Endpoint Detection and Response). Using different vulnerable drivers for defense evasion highlights how ransomware can adapt, presenting a significant challenge for cybersecurity defenses trying to stop it.              

Conclusion and recommendations

The Agenda ransomware’s ability to spread to virtual machine infrastructure shows that its operators are also expanding to new targets and systems, therefore organizations should be aware of the group’s activities and implement security measures to protect themselves from these kinds of ransomware, such as:

• Only granting employees administrative rights and access when necessary. 
• Performing period scans and ensure that security products are updated regularly.  
• Regularly backing up data to ensure as a failsafe measure for data loss. 
• Exercising good email and website safety practices; avoid downloading attachments, clicking on URLs, and downloading applications unless certain of the source’s legitimacy.
• Conducting regular user education on the dangers of social engineering. 

A multilayered approach can help organizations guard possible entry points into their system (endpoint, email, web, and network). Security solutions can detect malicious components and suspicious behavior, which can help protect enterprises.   

Trend Vision One ™ provides multilayered protection and behavior detection, which helps block questionable behavior and tools before ransomware can do any damage.  

Trend Cloud One™ – Workload Security  protects systems against both known and unknown threats that exploit vulnerabilities. This protection is made possible through techniques such as virtual patching and machine learning.   

Trend Micro™ Deep Discovery™ Email Inspector  employs custom sandboxing and advanced analysis techniques to effectively block malicious emails, including phishing emails that can serve as entry points for ransomware.   

Trend Micro Apex One ™ offers next-level automated threat detection and response against advanced concerns such as fileless threats and ransomware, ensuring the protection of endpoints.

With additional analysis from Nathaniel Morales, Maristel Policarpio, CJ Arsley Mateo, Don Ladores

Vision One hunting query

The following query lists potentially useful queries for threat hunting within Vision One:

(fullPath:("C:\Users\Public\enc.exe" OR "C:\Users\Public\pwndll.dll") OR malName:*agenda*) OR (objectFilePath: ("C:\Users\Public\enc.exe" OR "C:\Users\Public\pwndll.dll"))

Indicators of Compromise

The indicators of compromise for this entry can be found here .

Arianne Dela Cruz

Threat Analyst

Raymart Yambot

Raighen Sanchez

Threat Response Engineer

Darrel Tristan Virtusio

Cybersecurity Threat Engineer

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