Technical & Demo

Signal Taxonomy Reference

Every signal IO ingests, by source system, with what it can inform. Useful for scoping a deployment before any connector is authorised, you can see in advance which domain dimensions will have evidence and which will read not yet assessable.

Demo-tenant scopeDocument v3.44 min read

This is pre-normative material. Values and definitions here are working values, they are published so the reasoning is inspectable, not because they are settled.

Every signal IO ingests, by source system, with what it can inform. Useful for scoping a deployment before any connector is authorised, you can see in advance which domain dimensions will have evidence and which will read not yet assessable.

A signal is not a conclusion

The tables use three evidence strengths:

StrengthMeaningExample
ObservedA source recorded an eventA privileged elevation occurred
DerivedA versioned rule classified one or more observationsThe elevation was outside the expected window
AssertedA person or external provider supplied a claimA supplier rating or policy attestation

None proves that a control is effective. A signal can support a finding only when its provenance, population, rule, window and confidence are preserved. Throughout this reference, “evidences” means can inform the named condition, not “establishes the condition as fact.”

Scope: Atlas demonstration tenant, not the product connector catalogue. The counts below are from a synthetic 1,000-person industrial organisation over 210 days. They indicate relative volume, not a benchmark. A connector shown as live on the public integrations page may still have no data in this tenant, and a source represented below may have been seeded directly through the ingestion schema rather than pulled by a registered connector.

The source names such as siem, ai_platform and third_party are canonical demo abstractions. In a live deployment, every record should carry both its vendor-specific source and the canonical source class so a reader can reconstruct where an event actually came from. Where either field is absent, provenance is incomplete.

Identity and access, siem

The largest source by volume, and the one carrying most Threat Detection evidence.

Signal typeVolumeCan inform
sign_in_new_device24,582New-device activity; device-management status requires a separate attribute
mfa_challenge_passed20,666Successful challenge activity; resistance to session theft is not established
vpn_session_opened15,170Remote access surface
privileged_elevation9,480Privileged elevation activity; standing versus just-in-time requires entitlement and workflow context
conditional_access_block7,598Policy enforced at the point of access
new_country_signin5,695Geographic anomaly
after_hours_privileged_access4,902Privilege used outside expected windows
mfa_fatigue2,861Push-bombing pressure against the workforce
mass_file_download1,902Bulk egress by an identity
impossible_travel1,470Session anomaly implying credential sharing or theft
dormant_account_reactivated904Joiner-mover-leaver hygiene
service_account_interactive741Non-human identity used as a human one

Read this section with a caveat. Several of these types carry semantics that originate in an identity provider rather than in a SIEM, conditional access, impossible travel and new-country sign-in are Entra ID constructs. In a real deployment they usually arrive via forwarded identity logs. IO models them under siem because that is where most organisations read them from, not because a SIEM produces them natively.

Endpoint and IO Browser™, io_browser

The only source observing behaviour at the moment of decision rather than after it.

Signal typeVolumeCan inform
ai_prompt_submit1,863Content reaching a model
file_upload1,662Egress to an unmanaged destination
download_sensitive578Classified material leaving a sanctioned boundary
paste_to_web505Clipboard egress
credential_entry398Credentials entered into an unrecognised form
prompt_submit · paste · page_visit · download · form_submit91 combinedLower-volume browser events

AI usage, ai_platform

Signal typeVolumeCan inform
ai_prompt15,053Sanctioned AI usage and the data classifications inside it

Read alongside io_browser.ai_prompt_submit. The gap between the two is the gap between sanctioned and unsanctioned AI use, and it is the single most useful number in AI Governance.

Collaboration, microsoft_teams

Signal typeVolumeCan inform
message_posted2,472Content classification in externally-shared channels
retention_policy_change20Governance drift in collaboration settings
message_post · member_added · file_share · meeting_join46 combinedMembership and sharing events

Learning and simulation, lms

Signal typeVolumeCan inform
training_completed2,645Learning completed
phishing_sim_reported1,278Speak-up behaviour, the numerator of the culture measure
training_overdue641Delivery failure
phishing_sim_failed495Fell-for behaviour
training_in_progress274In-flight learning

Note the shape of the culture measure: reported sits in the numerator, failed only in the denominator. Counting a report as a failure penalises the one person who did the right thing.

Operational technology, ot_monitor

Signal typeVolumeCan inform
remote_access_session995Corporate-to-OT boundary crossings
engineering_change698Change control on plant systems
protocol_anomaly400Unexpected industrial protocol behaviour
removable_media_connected316Physical media into the OT estate
firmware_out_of_support228Unsupported plant firmware

Third party, third_party

Signal typeVolumeCan inform
third_party_session3,156Supplier identities active inside the estate
third_party_data_transfer1,333Data moving to or from a supplier
supplier_rating55External commercial rating
third_party_access_review47Review actually performed

The disagreement between supplier_rating and the two behavioural types is the core Third-Party Risk finding: a supplier can hold a strong external rating while its identities behave badly inside your environment.

Incident and assurance

SourceSignal typeVolume
incident_responseincident312
incident_responseexercise17
assurancepolicy_attestation553
assurancecontrol_evidence128

Physical Security, pacs, visitor_mgmt, physical_incident, vms

The demonstration tenant now carries physical-access evidence. The Physical Security IO domain reads four canonical source classes. Volumes are not restated here. The per-type counts for these classes have not been recomputed against the current canonical Atlas dataset from this site, so no figure is published rather than an invented one; the tenant's own Physical Security view reports a 90-day window, which is not the 210-day whole-tenant window used elsewhere in this reference.

Source classSignal typeEvidence strengthCan inform (domain dimensions)
pacsAccess-control event by person, door and timeObservedphysical_access_governance, stale_physical_access, access_outlived_role_or_contract, physical_to_digital_identity_correlation
pacsReader, panel and door stateObservedaccess_control_reader_coverage, physical_sensor_system_health
visitor_mgmtVisitor or contractor registration and sponsorship recordObserved and assertedvisitor_contractor_sponsorship, contractor_badge_return
physical_incidentIncident record naming a physical causeObserved and assertedphysical_incident_attribution, physical_post_intervention_remeasurement
vmsCamera and video-system event and health metadataObservedphysical_sensor_system_health, access_control_reader_coverage

For each of these classes:

  • Provenance requirements. Every record must carry both its vendor-specific source and the canonical source class, the door or zone reference, the timestamp, and the identity reference used for any correlation. Where any of those is absent, provenance is incomplete and the record cannot support a dimension.
  • Population. In-scope sites, doors and zones as declared by the customer, not the whole estate unless the whole estate is declared in scope.
  • Window. The declared measurement window for the dimension. Physical windows must never be silently combined with other windows.
  • Evidence limitations. Coverage gaps, reader outages and unresolved identity joins reduce confidence and may put a dimension into not_measured rather than producing a low score.

What these signals cannot establish, stated plainly:

  • A badge event is an observation. It is not proof of authorisation, intent, misconduct or control effectiveness.
  • A physical-access correlation can support governed investigation or prioritisation. It is not a judgment about a person, and IO does not score individuals.
  • IO does not require raw video or camera footage for the Physical Security measures described here.
  • vms data means event and system-health metadata unless a separately governed deployment explicitly authorises something more.
  • Source availability does not establish compliance.
  • A signal can inform a domain dimension without independently establishing that domain's performance or its maturity.

What is not ingested

The current demonstration tenant contains no email-gateway telemetry, no DLP verdicts from a dedicated DLP product, no vulnerability-scanner output, and no HRIS events beyond what arrives through the LMS. This is a statement about the tenant dataset, not about the connector catalogue or the product's ability to ingest those classes.

Domain dimensions depending on those will read not yet assessable with the missing source named, rather than scoring low.

Relationship to standards

NIST CSF 2.0 and C2M2 organise desired outcomes and practices; they do not prescribe this event taxonomy. IO uses source-neutral classes so evidence can be navigated toward relevant outcomes without claiming that an event satisfies a framework requirement. Vendor-specific event names and the original record remain authoritative.

Next step

See it before you talk to anyone.

Two quarters of recorded activity across sixteen seats. One click, no install.