receiving an event signal, wherein the event signal comprises a signal that indicates whether to activate a circuit of the first network entity;

authenticating the event responsive to determining that the received event signal correlates with an output signal of a closed-loop shift register in the first network entity;

performing the event in response to the event being authenticated; and

triggering a change in the closed-loop shift register in order to obtain a subsequent output signal from the closed-loop shift register;

wherein the received event signal correlates with the output signal of the closed-loop shift register responsive to determining that the received event signal causes a determined output signal when the received event signal is fed into an open-loop shift register that uses the output signal of the closed-loop shift register as its primitive polynomial; and

wherein a single shift register is used in a time-multiplexed manner to alternately provide a functionality of the closed-loop shift register and a functionality of the open-loop shift register.