In recent years, we can observe how new advanced computing technologies and computational approaches are very successfully applied in many application areas connected with VR/AR, multimedia technologies, decision-making and information extraction solutions, pattern classification, and security systems. Such enormous progress in application of intelligent information processing techniques is mostly possible thanks to the development of new computing approaches and application of techniques especially oriented on using innovative models for information processing, cognitive computing based on human thinking models and perceptual abilities, and transformative computing. Especially, human-oriented information processing methods allow to intelligently analyze a great amount of data (multimedia, Cloud, classified, etc), store them, manage in secure manner, and transmit between distributed peers using global communication networks. Further development of such technologies will be dependent on future, and next-generation computing approaches oriented for information fusion, data understanding, semantic reasoning, and encryption of processed data. These subjects, as well as a number of others, connected with advanced information processing and securing methodologies, for pervasive computing, IoT, smart infrastructure, 5G communication networks, VR/AR technologies, will form the subject of a Special Issue on Advanced approaches for information processing in multimedia, decision-making and security systems in the Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience Journal. To this Special Issue were selected eight articles of particular interest, which present the most interesting research activities and results within The paper entitled ''New protocols of cognitive data management and sharing in cloud computing'' by Ogiela and Takizawa 5 presents new solutions, which allow to divide and share confidential data in the cloud. In particular, new algorithms called cognitive threshold schemes were presented, which, for secret division, use a graph and multilevel representation. Secret reconstruction is possible with relation of proper shadows selection, which fulfils some requirements for data reconstruction. The paper entitled ''Cognitive cryptography for data security in cloud computing'' by Ogiela 6 presented new classes of authentication codes. Especially, the author introduced cognitive CAPTCHA protocols oriented for multilevel authentication of user groups, based on expert knowledge in any expertise areas, as well as high cognitive skills.