Complex Method of Determining the Location of Social Network Agents in the Interests of Information Operations

The researcher developed a method for determining the location of social network agents in the interest of conducting an information operation based on a comprehensive approach to data analysis of the information system. The relevance of the method is determined by the need to specify the enemy's target audience in the area of the information operation. Results. The author proposed a complex method for determining the location of social network agents, which is based on the combination of data from the analysis of the social connections of the specified agent, geotags and the time of registration of his friends in the social network, databases of IP addresses and geolocations of social network agents. The advantage of the developed method is the possibility of its application without direct access to the devices of agents of the social network that use the data of global positioning satellite systems. Conclusion. The application of the proposed complex method of determining the location of agents of social networks makes it possible to increase the effectiveness of information operations due to a more accurate definition of the enemy's target audience in the area of operations. The direction of improvement of the developed method can be its integration with complex information systems of psychological influence, as well as the use of machine learning methods and algorithms.