&gt; <i>I would think that anyone with that level of access to compromise the channel would likely be able to just compromise the server itself?</i><p>That point is often brought up when discussing security, though personally I think non-maximally-effective attacks are also worth discussing - an attacker may have a reason to refrain from using full powers available for him. For instance, compromising the server immediately may lead to detection and subsequent mitigation of the attack, whereas just tapping a channel may remain undetected for long and let the attacker gather intelligence, select a particular target or perform some other, unexpected attack.