The museum’s security system was breached using the password ‘Louvre’. The audacious robbery took only seven minutes. Investigators have arrested four suspects, but the jewels remain missing. The Apollo Gallery is now closed for security upgrades.
Weeks after the $102 million daylight robbery at Paris’s Louvre Museum, investigators have uncovered that the main security system was breached using the password ‘Louvre’.
According to reports from France’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI), the glaring flaw came to light during an ongoing probe into the October 19 heist.
A 2014 cybersecurity audit had already identified the same weakness in Louvre’s digital infrastructure nearly a decade ago but the museum failed to act. The agency had then notified that the surveillance and alarm systems were still running on 20-year-old software and had cautioned that an intruder could exploit these vulnerabilities.
These findings have triggered outrage and embarrassment for French authorities.
The dramatic heist went down in broad daylight as a four-man crew, dressed in construction vests and motorcycle helmets, used a cherry picker to reach the museum’s Apollo Gallery.
In seven minutes, they smashed glass display cases with chainsaws and made off with eight priceless gems, including a sapphire diadem, necklace, and single earring once belonging to 19th-century Queens Marie-Amelie and Hortense.
The thieves then went down using the same cherry picker, attempted to torch the vehicle and fled on two scooters parked nearby.
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