Worst security ever? This was the password for the video surveillance system at the Louvre museum. Yep, that’s it

For a place that houses the Mona Lisa, the Louvre might have been better off asking her to keep her wandering eye on the cameras. French media have revealed that the museum’s video surveillance system once had the password “Louvre.” Just that. No numbers, no symbols, no real care. It’s the kind of password your IT department would use in a presentation about what not to do.

According to a decade’s worth of confidential audits unearthed by Libération’s CheckNews, France’s top cybersecurity agency (Anssi) discovered in 2014 that the museum’s internal systems were wide open to intrusion. Outdated software, missing updates and “trivial” passwords meant hackers could have nipped into the network from outside the building. The potential was there to control access bridges, alarms and cameras.

What was wrong at the Louvre security?

At the time, experts are said to have urged those responsible at the Louvre to fix, at least, the basics: change passwords, update systems, migrate off Windows 2000 (yes, really). But by 2017, a follow-up report still found “major deficiencies.” As of 2025, some of the software running the museum’s surveillance remained too old to update, a museum of obsolete code guarding a museum of priceless art.

The French culture minister has since ordered an emergency review following last month’s broad-daylight burglary at the Louvre. Whether the thieves had help from the museum’s digital cobwebs remains unknown.

Where’s Ladybug when you need her?

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