Security and Nuisances of Social Media on Wi-Fi Network

Purpose: This research is about the nuisances of social media application on a Wi-Fi network in a university campus in Ghana. The aim was to access the security risk on the network, the speed of the network and the data consumption of those platforms on the network. Nmap Zenmap GUI 7.80 application was used to scan the various social media platforms to identify the protocols, ports, services etc. to enable in accessing the vulnerability of the network. Data consumption on users' mobile devices was collected and analyzed. Methodology: An online questionnaire was also used to solicit for the information on social media data usage from the users of the network. Findings: The top ten social media platforms i.e. Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, YouTube, Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, LinkedIn, Telegram and Tik-Tok are not running on secured protocols and services. This calls for serious attention on the security of networks that allows such application. A proper filtering mechanism is necessary to protect the network from attacks. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Entertainment is relevant for education but not mandatory for learning. If social media platforms are posing security threats, increasing unnecessary traffic and resulting to high cost of maintaining networks. The nuisance of social media is as a result of the nature of the content or media that is allowed. Users of a network are often attracted to these content. The ability of the content to lure the users makes it necessary for traffic to be generated on the network through the social media applications.