A hardware security accelerator includes a configurable parser that is configured to receive a packet and to extract from the packet headers associated with a set of protocols. The security accelerator also includes a packet type detection unit to determine a type of the packet in response to the set of protocols and to generate a packet type identifier indicative of the type of the packet. A configurable security unit includes a configuration unit and a configurable security engine. The configuration unit configures the configurable security engine according to the type of the packet and to content of at least one of the headers extracted from the packet. The configurable security engine performs security processing of the packet to provide at least one security result.