A method is provided for protecting a vehicle network of a vehicle against manipulated data transmission. The vehicle network includes multiple network nodes. At least one first network node in the vehicle network compares received messages with messages assigned to the first network node and detects the manipulated data transmission if one of the received messages coincides with a message assigned to the first network node, but the first network node did not send the message. At the same time, the first network node compares only selected messages of the received messages with the messages assigned to the first network node or compares the received messages only with selected messages assigned to the first network node.