A method of identifying errors or manipulations of data or software, includes receiving a first hash value stored in a first block of the memory, receiving a second hash value from a reference memory, and comparing the hash values. If different, error correction information and the content of the first block is received. The content of the first block is reconstructed by in accordance with the error correction information, generating a hash value and comparing the hash value of the modified content with the received first hash value, until the modified content and the received hash values are identical. The content of the first block received from the reference memory and the content of the reconstructed first block stored in the memory of the device are compared for identifying the differences in the content.