1. A computer network device, comprising: an intrusion prevention rule set comprising a plurality of rules, each of the plurality of rules associated with two or more rule classification parameters; and an intrusion prevention module operable to use two or more of the classification parameters associated with the plurality of intrusion prevention rules to selectively apply the rules to provide network intrusion protection of network traffic, wherein selectively applying the rules comprises identifying a subset of the plurality of intrusion prevention rules applicable to a specific data stream by applying information from a firewall to the two or more rule classification parameters of the plurality of intrusion prevention rules, and processing only those intrusion prevention rules determined applicable to the specific data stream against the specific data stream, the information from the firewall obtained by the firewall when processing the specific data stream.