A method, system, and computer program product for minimizing surprisal context data. The method comprising the steps of: identifying characteristics of a data event; receiving an input of rank of at least two identified characteristics of the data event; the computer generating a hierarchy of ranked, identified characteristics based on the rank of the at least two identified characteristics of the data event; and comparing the hierarchy of ranked, identified characteristics to a repository of reference artifacts arranged in characteristic context patterns. If at least one reference artifact arranged in characteristic context patterns from the repository matches the hierarchy of ranked, identified characteristics, the characteristic context pattern is stored as a surprisal context filter and compared to a data input of data events to detect anomalous events.