Safe bus devices use a safety protocol in order to transmit safe data encapsulated in an industrial Ethernet message via an Ethernet-based field bus. However, this restricts the safe bus device to a certain combination of safety protocol and industrial Ethernet protocol. In order to be able to use a safe bus device 12, 14, 151 more flexibly, it is provided that, to transmit the safety-oriented data, the industrial Ethernet protocol uses the session layer 5 and/or presentation layer 6 of the safety protocol, which is independent of the industrial Ethernet protocol, instead of the session layer 5 and/or presentation layer 6 which is implemented in the industrial Ethernet protocol, whereby such a bus device 12, 14, 151 becomes independent of the industrial Ethernet protocol.