A system and method for receiving data packets at a computer system are presented. The method and system comprise receiving at a buffer, at least two data packets. Once received, an ending portion of the first data packet is stored in a buffer, wherein the ending portion comprises at least the last data bit in the first data packet. Next the method and system concatenates the ending portion of the first data packet with a beginning portion of the second data packet so a string search engine can determine if the concatenated data contains a known string of malicious data bits.