Method and system for combined security protocol and packet filter offload and onload

A network interface card (NIC) includes a security association database (SADB) comprising a plurality of security associations (SAs), a cryptographic offload engine configured to decrypt a packet using one of the plurality of SAs, a security policy database (SPD) comprising a plurality of security policies (SPs) and a plurality of filter policies, and a policy engine configured to determine an admittance of the packet using one of the plurality of SPs from the SPD and apply one of the plurality of filter policies to the packet.