Patent ID: 8321040

Claim:
A method for operating a safety control in an automation network by means of a master subscriber implementing the safety control, an identifier being assigned to the safety control and the master subscriber verifying during loading of the safety control whether the identifier assigned to the safety control corresponds to an identifier calculated in the safety control and the automation network changing to a safe state if it is determined that the identifier differs, wherein during a start-up of the automation network the master subscriber checks whether an identifier assigned to a safety control is stored in a slave subscriber of the automation network to be monitored within the framework of the safety control, wherein, if no identifier is stored in the slave subscriber, the identifier assigned to the safety control in the master subscriber is loaded to the slave subscriber, and wherein, if an identifier is stored in the slave subscriber, the master subscriber compares the identifier assigned to the safety control in the master subscriber to the identifier stored in the slave subscriber and the automation network changes to a safe state if it is determined that the identifiers differ.