Method and apparatus for preventing malicious network traffic

A method for preventing malicious network traffic, the method comprising:

• providing, by a key generation appliance, a client key to a client device;
• receiving, by a control appliance, a data packet intended for an application server from the client device;
• determining, by the control appliance, whether the data packet comprises the client key;
• forwarding the data packet, by the control appliance, to the application server in response to a determination that the data packet comprises the client key;
• and
• blocking the data packet, by the control appliance, in response to a determination that the data packet does not comprise the client key;
• wherein the client key provided to the client device is a first client key, and wherein determining whether the data packet comprises the client key, comprises:
• determining, whether a previous data packet previously received from the client device comprises the first client key;
• and
• determining whether the data packet comprises a second client key derivable from the first client key, wherein the second client key is smaller in size than the first client key.