The invention is directed to a protective circuit for an integrated circuit 1. This protective circuit is preferably arranged in a plurality of circuit levels 2, 3 under and/or above the intergrated circuit 1. It exhibits a plurality of interconnects 10, 11 that are charged with different signals of one or more signal generators. The different signals, after traversing the interconnects 10, 11, are analyzed with one or more detectors in that the signals received by detectors are respectively compared to rated reference signals, and an alarm signal is forwarded to the integrated circuit given the presence of a significant difference. On the basis of this alarm signal, the integrated circuit is switched into a security mode that makes an analysis or a manipulation of the integrated circuit practically impossible.