Where is thy trust, O Internet?

Trust is a recurring theme in Clifford Stoll's book The Cuckoo's Egg. Speaking of trust on the internet, he writes:

"Our networks are delicate things—people connect to us in hope of mutual support. When someone breaks into a computer, they destroy that trust. Aside from wasting days of my time, and forcing us to disable our network connections, these hackers undermine the openness that lets us do science together."

I believe this view is flawed. Communal trust is a measure of confidence in the system, not its members. Imagine you lived in a city with no courts, no laws, and no police. You would live in constant fear for your safety. You could hardly trust anyone. As soon as your interactions extend beyond a few close friends, trust turns to distrust. To restore the balance of trust, a safe and secure system is needed for the community.

On the internet, we trust that the system administrators running a network have created a safe environment for us. When hackers break into a network, the system managers can point fingers and blame hackers for destroying that trust. But in reality, the system managers only have themselves to blame. It is their own ignorance or incompetence in security that has undermined the communal trust.