One embodiment provides a system that facilitates efficient and secure transportation of content. An intermediate node receives a packet that corresponds to a fragment of a content object message that is fragmented into a plurality of fragments. One or more fragments of the plurality of fragments indicate a unique name that is a hierarchically structured variable-length identifier that comprises contiguous name components ordered from a most general level to a most specific level. The received fragment indicates an intermediate state which is based on a hash function performed on an intermediate state from a previous fragment and data included in the received fragment. In response to determining that the received fragment is a first fragment, the system identifies a first entry in a pending interest table for an interest with a name that is based on a hash of a content object and that corresponds to the first fragment.