SEVERITY CONFIRMATION NEEDED FOR JUST ONLY OBTAIN EARLY INDICATORS OF AN OCCURENCE/$

The correct classification for obtaining early indicators of an occurrence is Low (or Informational / Notice).

Severity Breakdown

Severity Level	Characteristic Criteria	Fit for Early Indicators
Low / Informational	Operational awareness, early warning signals, potential trend shifts, pre-incident logs.	Exact Match. Early indicators reflect potential conditions before impact or actual occurrence.
Medium	Measurable impact, performance degradation, minor service disruption, localized risk.	No. Early indicators alone do not confirm impact or active disruption.
High	Critical system compromise, significant downtime, major data risk, severe failure.	No. High severity requires active, high-impact events or confirmed severe breaches.

Contextual Considerations

• Security Monitoring (SOC / SIEM): Early indicators (e.g., unusual login velocity, minor scan activity) are triaged as Low / Informational until correlated with secondary evidence.
• Risk Management & Auditing: Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) serving as early warnings are categorized under Low Severity (Watchlist / Observation) until tolerance thresholds are crossed.
• Incident Response: Early indicators serve to trigger heightened monitoring or preventive controls, not an emergency escalation pathway.