The present disclosure is directed towards systems and methods for performing multi-level tagging of encrypted items for additional security and efficient encrypted item determination. A device intercepts a message from a server to a client, parses the message and identifies a cookie. The device processes and encrypts the cookie. The device adds a flag to the cookie indicating the device encrypted the cookie. The device re-inserts the modified cookie into the message and transmits the message. The device intercepts a message from a client and determines whether the cookie in the message was encrypted by the device. If the message was not encrypted by the device, the device transmits the message to its destination. If the message was encrypted by the device, the device removes the flag, decrypts the cookie, removes the tag from the cookie, re-inserts the cookie into the message and transmits the message to its final destination.