A method for detecting events based upon attributes read by a plurality of entities includes receiving data pertaining to the read attributes from the plurality of entities, performing a correlation analysis on the data to identify a number of independent variables existing among the read attributes for each of a plurality of groupings of the plurality of entities in a first hierarchical level of the plurality of hierarchical levels, comparing the identified number of independent variables with a nominal number of independent variables for each of the plurality of groupings in the first hierarchical level, and determining that an event has been detected in response to the identified number of independent variables falling outside of a predetermined value of the nominal number of independent variables for a particular grouping in the first hierarchical level.