Sounds like a great sci-fi plot - hunting for treasure/information by scanning ancient forgotten packets still in-flight on a neglected automated galactic network.
Vernor Vinge could absolutely have included that in some of his stories.
Charles Stross, Neptune’s Brood.
I have a vague memory that Sean Williams's Astropolis series touches upon this at one point. Although it has been a while and I might be mis-remembering.
There was an sf short story based on someone implementing a worm (as in Morris Worm) which deleted all data on a planet. They fix it by flying FTL and intercepting some critical information being send at radio speed. I think it was said to be the first description of malware, and the origin of the term "worm" in this context.