Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device that can be configured to receive data in a data flow, extract a data visa from the data flow, wherein the data visa is related to the data, and determine a reputation of the data from the data visa. The data visa can include reputation determination information obtained by previous network elements in the data flow. In addition, the electronic device can update the data visa, and communicate the updated data visa and data to a next network element in the data flow.