A networking method includes receiving a first data packet from a computing node at a middleware process of a first computing system, adding, by the middleware process, a Common Internet Protocol Security Option (CIPSO) label to the data packet to form a modified packet, and transmitting, by a separation kernel, the modified packet to a second computing system. The first computing system includes an embedded operating system, and the computing node is coupled to the first computing system. The second computing system includes a CIPSO compliant operating system.