The Louvre Heist: A Masterclass in the Security Basics We Still Get Wrong
The recent investigation into the Louvre heist revealed a shocking detail: the password for the museum’s video surveillance system was simply “Louvre.”
While this wasn’t a ‘cloud hack’, it was a monumental failure of basic digital hygiene that reminds us that your cloud systems are only ever as secure as the weakest link in the chain.
What happened at the Louvre wasn’t a complicated, sophisticated exploit of an effective security system. It was simple negligence, of the type we see all the time.
Our first reaction when we see something like this is that it’s not a technology failure, but a failure of governance and culture.
The core issue isn’t the weak password itself. It’s the fact that a weak password existed on a mission-critical system, was likely flagged by multiple audits, and was ignored until a catastrophic event occurred.
So why does this happen?
Risk blindness. Complacency sets in, especially in large, stable organisations. They become tolerant of basic hygiene issues because “nothing has happened yet.” How often have you seen risk registers in your organisation filled with outdated entries that are quietly passed over?
Process gap. Security policies might state that strong passwords are required, but systems are often deployed outside the formal procurement process. When that happens, they’re not integrated with the enterprise Identity Provider, leaving default credentials or local admin accounts in place, and those quickly become weak points.
Accountability. The team responsible for security surveillance likely wasn’t the same team responsible for IT security standards. When accountability is siloed, foundational tasks like credential rotation and patching are seen as someone else’s problem. Many organisations also allow certain functions to operate independently, granting waivers that let them bypass integration. The risk may be formally accepted by the business owner, but do those teams have the skills to manage it, and is the full impact on the wider organisation really understood?
So why do large and high-profile organisations still struggle with basics like credential management?
Often there’s a conflict between security, scale, and usability. Strong security measures such as frequent MFA requests or complex passwords add friction to daily workflows.
People will always find the path of least resistance. When security teams don’t integrate seamlessly, for example by using biometrics or single sign-on, employees will always find workarounds like writing down their passwords or sharing credentials.
Large enterprises often carry technical debt and legacy systems, creating complex and inconsistent environments. Integrating old on-premise systems (like the reported Windows 2000 CCTV server at the Louvre) with modern cloud-based Identity and Access Management (IAM) platforms is technically difficult and expensive. These legacy gaps become the easiest entry points for attackers.
Although the Louvre attack wasn’t cloud related, we can still learn from it. The shift to cloud computing means managing not just human users but machine identities too. These include service principals, API keys, and managed identities for containers and serverless functions. They often outnumber human users by ten to one and are frequently overlooked, rarely following standard password policies.
So how do large organisations actually implement effective password and identity governance?
By moving beyond passwords entirely and applying the principles of zero trust with no exceptions.
Identity becomes the new perimeter. Every organisation should use one centralised Identity Provider (IdP) for all access, both on-site and in the cloud, with universal MFA and SSO. Non-SMS-based MFA should be mandatory for every employee and contractor, and SSO should cover at least 95% of all corporate applications.
Use Privileged Access Management (PAM) vaulting and Just-In-Time (JIT) access requests for administrative tasks, ensuring that permissions automatically expire within an hour.
Automate identity lifecycle management by linking access to the HR system. This means that when an employee leaves, their access is immediately revoked across all systems. Access reviews should be automated and carried out quarterly by application owners.
Require continuous verification, since access requirements should change based on context. If a user logs in from an unfamiliar country or device, they should be automatically challenged with MFA or blocked entirely, even if their password is correct.
If we could give one piece of advice to CIOs and CISOs, it would be this: enforce MFA for all privileged access. It’s non-negotiable if you want to remain secure and compliant, and just because nothing has happened yet doesn’t mean you’re safe.
Immediately review all accounts with administrative access across your core cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP), internal IAM or Active Directory, and your most critical SaaS tools such as CRM and ERP systems. Then enable and enforce MFA for every one of those accounts, using strong authentication methods like authenticator apps or hardware tokens rather than SMS.
Doing this addresses the most significant immediate risk. Most major breaches start with the compromise of a single privileged credential. By enforcing MFA, you neutralise over 80% of all credential-based attacks, regardless of password complexity. It’s the highest-impact, lowest-cost action you can take to drastically reduce organisational risk this week.
If your organisation is looking to strengthen identity governance or close security gaps, book a call with our team. We can help you build a practical, compliant, and scalable security foundation.
