The rapid integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) into smart city infrastructures necessitates advanced security measures to ensure their safe and sustainable operation. However, existing Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) systems are highly vulnerable to spoofing, data falsification, and cyber threats, which compromises air traffic management and poses significant challenges to UAV security. This paper presents an innovative approach to improving UAV security by introducing a novel steganographic method for ADS-B data protection. The proposed method leverages Fourier transformation to embed UAV identifiers into ADS-B signals, ensuring a high level of concealment and robustness against signal distortions. A key feature of the approach is the dynamic parameter management system, which adapts to varying transmission conditions to minimize distortions and enhance resilience. Experimental validation demonstrates that the method achieves a tenfold reduction in Mean Squared Error (MSE) and Normalized Mean Squared Error (NMSE) compared to existing techniques such as mp3stego while also improving the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) compared to s-tools. The proposed solution ensures compliance with existing ADS-B standards, maintaining seamless integration with air traffic management systems while enhancing cybersecurity measures. By safeguarding UAV communications, the method contributes to the sustainable development of smart cities and supports critical applications such as logistics, environmental monitoring, and emergency response operations. These findings confirm the practical feasibility of the proposed approach and its potential to strengthen UAV security and ADS-B data protection, ultimately contributing to the resilience and sustainability of urban airspace infrastructure.

The subject of the article is a model of the ADS-B data transmission process of an unmanned aerial vehicle in a steganographic system using direct spectrum expansion technology. The aim of the publication is to improve the security of unmanned aerial vehicles with an integrated ADS-B system. Particular scientific tasks: analysis of basic methods of ADS-B format data protection; development of the scheme of ADS-B drone data transfer in steganographic system with the use of direct spectrum expansion technology; improvement of the model of ADS-B drone data transfer in steganographic system with the use of direct spectrum expansion technology; determination of qualitative and quantitative characteristics as well as security properties of ADS-B format data. The following research results were obtained: as the result of the scientific works analysis the hypothesis about the perspectives of the ADS-B format steganographic data protection usage was put forward; the scheme of an unmanned aerial vehicle ADS-B data transmission in the steganographic system with the usage of the direct spectrum spreading technology was developed; the main safety properties as well as the safety parameters and characteristics of the ADS-B format information signal were formulated; the generalized model of an unmanned aerial vehicle ADS-B data transmission was further developed. This will improve the safety of UAVs. The advantages and disadvantages of the model were revealed, which allowed to determine the priority of further research and possible promising ways of solving the assigned tasks.