1. A computer implemented method for analyzing temporal data of a computer network to provide a computer generated graph of a temporally meaningful data sample comprising the steps of: selecting a computer network data source in which data from the source contains temporal attributes, the data having a set of predefined data properties other than the temporal attributes; obtaining a first data set of temporal data of a first size from the selected data source; transforming the temporal data from the selected source into a computer generated temporal graph containing the set of predefined data properties; selecting a temporal attribute; generating a time decay function of the selected temporal attribute and fitting the time decay function into a temporal distribution of the selected temporal attribute in the temporal graph; selecting a data sampling time window in the temporal graph defining a second data set of temporal data of a second size less than the first size based on the time decay function, such that the set of predefined data properties is substantially preserved within the data sampling window based on a calculation of metrics of the set of predefined data properties from data within the selected data sampling time window; sampling data from the data source within the selected data sampling time window; and generating a computer generated temporal subsample graph of the metrics of the predefined data properties of the sampled network data.