I'm not sure how, if tradelanes are so stupid, the lane hackers became rich...I would say that there's a problem with the underlying rp of the lanes...lane hackers cannot be the only people hacking lanes, because every criminal group seems to do so...but...They are the only ones with background, and the lanes and gates are supposed to be very secure secrets...
If you remember, Trent didn't have access codes for any gates in the beginning. So, there's something broken there, and I'm not sure how to fix it without massive work.