(image source Demchak)
ZD net posted an article that talks about China intercepting internet traffic to collect data, which sources data from research done by Demchak.
I think it’s reasonable to say that all traffic is being hijacked and logged. Assume the internet is a public forum and corporations, nation states, and other attackers are collecting every bit of information that is available about you.
At the top you have advertising agencies like Facebook and Google tracking what you look at on the internet, and the bottom you have these types of attacks which look at the traffic at a lower level. If you don’t protect your information or block it from being collected it will be collected and analyzed.
Using things like ad blockers, encryption, and verifying the source of your servers through TLS is a good first step. Your data is valuable, incredibly valuable to these companies, both in aggregate and specifically your user data.
Assume your content is being stolen. Protect it.