Patent ID: 7502922

Claim:
A method of providing transport-independent secure communications in a computer network, comprising the steps of: directly receiving application data, from an application, at an upper connection layer of a transport protocol stack, wherein the application data is received from the application using a connection specific application programming interface (API) desired for communication by the application and which is not associated with security; passing the application data from the upper connection layer to a security layer from within the transport protocol stack and unbeknownst to the application; encrypting the application data within the security layer; passing the encrypted application data from the security layer to a lower connection layer of the transport protocol stack; and sending the encrypted application data from the lower connection layer out a network connection; wherein the application is not required to perform security handshakes in order to send encrypted application data over the network, the connection layers support at least one network transport protocol, and the security layer is not specific to that transport protocol.