1. A method of gathering network traffic for analysis of undesirable trends comprising: defining a plurality of tiers for gathering network traffic, each of the plurality of tiers having a temporal scale and spatial scale independent of the others of the plurality of tiers, the temporal scale defining the timing of observed packets and the spatial scale defining a scope of analysis performed on observed packets; gathering, according to the temporal scale of at least one of the tiers, data from the network traffic, the gathered data defining an event; analyzing, according to the spatial scale of at least one of the tiers, the gathered network data; determining, based on the analyzing, if the analyzed data indicates an alert, the alert indicative of remedial operations; and generating, if an alert is indicated, a responsive action directed to the indicated remedial operations.