A Piece of the COGSEC Puzzle: Developing Original Perspectives

Cognitive Security (COGSEC) is a field focusing on efforts and counterefforts to influence groups of people in virtual spaces (Waltzman, 2017). It’s suggested that these efforts are and will continue to be conducted by governments, academics, industry participants, etc. (Waltzman, 2017). While the field of COGSEC is focused on these issues at scale (Waltzman, 2017), it is necessary for individuals to implement practices to maintain the security of their own cognitive environments.

Threat Landscape

Online environments are subject to several forms of malicious information, including fake news, hoaxes, rumors, clickbait, disinformation, and misinformation (Guo et al., 2019). Other threats may not necessarily be inspired by malice but have similar effects. These include echo chambers, information gatekeeping, and bias (Guo et al., 2019).

In more insidious instances, influence operations can be coordinated at scale while still maintaining messaging that can be customized (targeted) down to the individual level (Song & Fiore, 2020; Waltzman, 2017). These campaigns can be conducted by advertisers (van Reijmersdal et al., 2022), political parties (Hirsch et al., 2024), and even military organizations (Song & Fiore, 2020).

More recently, concerns have been raised about the potential impact of large language models (LLMs) being trained on “poisoned” data and/or operating with constraints that exist for the purpose of imposing a worldview on its users. Much research is being done, for example, on the political orientation of various LLM systems (Rozado, 2024; Kronlund-Drouault, 2024).

Solutions

Research is being performed on how online influence efforts can be countered at a societal scale. Research avenues include debunking at scale, understanding social contagion, detecting malicious information (Guo et al., 2019), and AI alignment (Kronlund-Drouault, 2024).

These efforts are notably focused on the macro environment rather than how individuals themselves can guard against undesirable online influence. Of course, plenty of recommendations exist that are reminiscent of workplace training videos- “investigate the source,” “understand the incentives,” etc.; however, the rapid pace of today’s information environment may require a more holistic approach.

Practice Developing Original Perspectives

One potential tool for improving personal COGSEC may simply be to regularly practice developing original perspectives. Every so often, take a moment to stop and consciously think about a topic that is important to you. Reason through the issue from beginning to end. Think about how each step fits into your value system. Think about when this topic became important to you. Think about ideas that influenced your beliefs on this topic. Think about the groups that may benefit from you believing one thing or another about this topic. Then, as hard as it may be, try to come up with an original thought concerning the topic and write your thoughts down. Not only does recording your thoughts help you to structure them, but it also gives you a reference point. This exercise may help you to critically evaluate new information you come across. It may also help you to strengthen your fundamental values on various topics- firming you up against the onslaught of information that exists in our modern digital environment. Additionally, it might even be a flywheel that helps you to generate more original ideas in the future.

References

Guo, B., Ding, Y., Sun, Y., Ma, S., & Li, K. (2019). The Mass, Fake News, and Cognition Security. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1907.07759

Hirsch, M., Binder, A., & Matthes, J. (2024). The Influence of Political Fit, Issue Fit, and Targeted Political Advertising Disclosures on Persuasion Knowledge, Party Evaluation, and Chilling Effects. Social Science Computer Review, 42(2), 554–573. https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393231193731

Kronlund-Drouault, P. (2024). Propaganda is all you need. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.01810v1

Rozado, D. (2024). The political preferences of LLMs. PloS One, 19(7), e0306621-. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306621

Song, J., & Fiore, S. M. (2020). For Whom the Tale’s Told: Towards a Multidimensional Model of Targeted Narrative Persuasion in Information Operations. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 64(1), 1505–1509. https://doi.org/10.1177/1071181320641360

van Reijmersdal, E. A., Boerman, S. C., & Noort, G. van. (2022). Effects of online behaviorally targeted native advertising on persuasion: A test of two competing mechanisms. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 7, 100221-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2022.100221

Waltzman, R. (2017, April 27). The weaponization of information: The need for cognitive security. RAND. Retrieved March 24, 2025, from https://www.rand.org/pubs/testimonies/CT473.html