No Way That Was the Louvre's Password for Its Security Network

Matt Vespa | November 07, 2025 6:45 AM

It’s already embarrassing that the French allowed a bunch of petty thieves abscond with the nation’s Crown Jewels valued at nearly $100 million in less than eight minutes. The Louvre jewel heist remains unreal. These thieves used a furniture lift to gain access to the Galerie d'Apollon last month. They wore construction worker vests which allowed them to carry out this caper in broad daylight.

With the nation humiliated over this caper, there’s been yet another audit of its security systems, and it’s also a joke. The password for the museum’s security system that’s protecting countless pieces of art was “Louvre.” No, I’m not kidding. As the New York Post wrote, it might as well have been “password” (via NY Post):

A probe into the broad daylight heist at the Louvre revealed the world-renowned museum had used a mind-bloggingly weak password for its core security systems, according to a report.
France’s National Cybersecurity Agency was able to access a server managing the museum’s video surveillance using the ridiculously easy password, “LOUVRE,” according to confidential documents obtained by Libération.
The namesake password was first revealed by the agency in a 2014 audit. Subsequent audits found “serious shortcomings” in the Paris museum’s security systems — including the use of two-decade-old software.
This security network is where “the museum’s most critical protection and detection equipment is connected,” the cybersecurity agency, known as ANSSI, wrote in a 2014 audit.