Abstract: An apparatus and method for enabling rapid transfer of safe data in a data communication network. The apparatus includes a plurality of matrices and a database of unsafe data. A predetermined portion of the unsafe data's signature is populated to a corresponding position in each matrix, and the signature of a received data is compared against a plurality of matrices. If the signature of the received data does not match any element in the plurality of matrices, the received data is marked as safe data.

Abstract: A hardware-based policy engine that employs a policy cache to process packets of network traffic. The policy engine includes a stream classifier that associates each packet with at least one action processor based on data in the packet, and the action processor further acts on the packets based on the association determined by the stream classifier.