A scheme for performing secure communications in a wireless local network. In one aspect of the invention, software hosted on a host processing unit maintains multiple queues. A networking module adapted to communicate with the host processing unit includes corresponding FIFO buffers to service the queues. The networking module also comprises an arbiter and a security engine. The arbiter is responsible for determining which queue is to be serviced next contingent upon a priority scheme. The security engine preferably incorporates a cipher performing encryption and decryption in a sequential or chain mode. Once one of the queues is granted by the arbiter, the security engine fetches data from the granted queue and then encrypts or decrypts the data using the cipher.