Patent ID: 8918634

Claim:
A network node, comprising: a host information handling system (IHS) including an internal network interface controller; a secure data link coupled to the host IHS; a stateless network-attached external security offload device, coupled to the host IHS via the secure data link, the stateless network-attached external security offload device being external to the host IHS; and the host IHS being configured to store security metadata that is associated with a data packet, the host IHS being further configured to offload the data packet and the associated security metadata and static security association (SA) information via the secure data link to the stateless network-attached external security offload device, thus providing an offloaded data packet; the stateless network-attached external security offload device being configured to: receive the offloaded data packet and the associated security metadata and the static security association (SA) information; store the offloaded data packet and the static security association (SA) information; encrypt and encapsulate the offloaded data packet thus providing an encapsulated encrypted data packet; and transmit the encapsulated encrypted data packet back to the host IHS for further processing; the host IHS being further configured to: transmit the encapsulated encrypted data packet via the internal network interface controller of the host IHS to a communications network for communication to an IHS other than the host IHS.