The present invention is generally directed to a computer security management system that integrates a firewall with an intrusion detection system (IDS). In other words, the firewall and IDS of the present invention can be designed to communicate process or status information and packets with one another. The present invention can facilitate centralized control of the firewall and the IDS and can increase the speed at which packets are passed between a secured computer network and an external network. Increased packet processing speed can be achieved in several ways. For example, the firewall and IDS can process packets in series, in parallel, and sometimes singularly when one of the components is not permitted to process a packet. Alternatively, singular processing can also be performed when one component is permitted to pass a packet to the secured computer network without checking with the other component.