This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ech T Press Science Computers, Materials & Continua DOI: 10.32604/cmc.2023.033532 Article Optimal Deep Learning Model Enabled Secure UAV Classification for Industry 4.0 Khalid A. Alissa 1 , Mohammed Maray 2 , Areej A. Malibari 3 , Sana Alazwari 4 , Hamed Alqahtani 5 , Mohamed K. Nour 6 , Marwa Obbaya 7 , Mohamed A. Shamseldin 8 and Mesfer Al Duhayyim 9 , * 1 SAUDI ARAMCO Cybersecurity Chair, Networks and Communications Department, College of Computer Science and Information Technology, Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam, 31441, Saudi Arabia 2 Department of Information Systems, College of Computer Science, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia 3 Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, College of Engineering, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh, 11671, Saudi Arabia 4 Department of Information Technology, College of Computers and Information Technology, Taif University, Taif P.O. Box 11099, Taif, 21944, Saudi Arabia 5 Department of Information Systems, College of Computer Science, Center of Artificial Intelligence, Unit of Cybersecurity, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia 6 Department of Computer Sciences, College of Computing and Information System, Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia 7 Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh, 11671, Saudi Arabia 8 Department of Mechanical Engineering,Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Future University in Egypt, New Cairo, 11835, Egypt 9 Department of Computer Science, College of Sciences and Humanities- Aflaj, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia *Corresponding Author: Mesfer Al Duhayyim. Email: m.alduhayyim@psau.edu.sa Received: 20 June 2022; Accepted: 28 September 2022 Abstract: Emerging technologies such as edge computing, Internet of Things (IoT), 5G networks, big data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) empower, Industry 4.0, with a progressive production methodology that shows attention to the interaction between machine and human beings. In the literature, various authors have focused on resolving security problems in UAV communication to provide safety for vital applica- tions. The current research article presents a Circle Search Optimization with Deep Learning Enabled Secure UAV Classification (CSODL-SUAVC) model for Industry 4.0 environment. The suggested CSODL-SUAVC methodology is aimed at accomplishing two core objectives such as secure communication via image steganography and image classification. Primarily, the proposed CSODL-SUAVC method involves the following methods such as Multi- Level Discrete Wavelet Transformation (ML-DWT), CSO-related Optimal Pixel Selection (CSO-OPS), and signcryption-based encryption. The proposed model deploys the CSO-OPS technique to select the optimal pixel points in cover images. The secret images, encrypted by signcryption technique, are embedded into cover images. Besides, the image classification process includes