The password for the Louvre’s video surveillance system was simply “Louvre” when thieves stole jewels worth €88 million from the museum last month, it emerged on Thursday.
The password for another security system, operated by the defence contractor Thales, was “Thales”. Some security installations were still running until recently on Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 although both operating systems have long been unsupported by Microsoft.
Experts warned the Louvre as early as 2014 that “trivial passwords” and “obsolete systems” left its alarms, entry controls and CCTV network open to intrusion, but little action appears to have been taken.
Thieves targeted the museum in October
DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
A police commissioner testified to the French Senate last week that the Louvre’s IT infrastructure required “urgent modernisation” and the management was “fully aware” of its vulnerability.
Rachida Dati, the culture minister, has ordered the creation of a new security department, and the Louvre’s board has called a meeting to discuss the crisis on Friday.
The password revelation was made by a Louvre employee, interviewed by French media on condition of anonymity. State auditors have said the museum’s management had spent lavishly on acquiring new artworks while woefully underfunding security.
• Louvre heist ‘feeds the shame of a country that feels vulnerable’
“The theft of the crown jewels is undoubtedly a deafening alarm bell,” Pierre Moscovici, head of the Court of Accounts, France’s equivalent of the National Audit Office, said as he presented the audit, carried out before the October 19 heist, on Thursday.
Pierre Moscovici
SARAH MEYSSONNIER/REUTERS
Excerpts from the auditors’ report, criticising outdated security systems and a lack of CCTV cameras, were leaked to the press the day after the theft. Now the full report has been made public, further embarrassing the state-owned museum and President Macron.
As well as highlighting security failings, the report said that Macron’s plan to give the Mona Lisa a room of its own was unfunded.
If it goes ahead, the move would be part of a vast revamp of the Louvre announced by the president in January. He claimed it would cost €800 million and the museum would pay for much of the work itself, helped in part by a surcharge for Britons and other non-EU visitors.
The auditors, however, said the cost had now been re-evaluated at €1.15 billion and there was “a high risk of further overruns because of the complexity of the plan”.
The report said that only 39 per cent of the Louvre’s rooms had cameras as of last year and the museum was delaying the installation of more. “The pace is deplorably inadequate,” Moscovici said, adding that the Louvre had sufficient funds to improve security but was not planning to complete an upgrade before 2032. “It must do this now, without fail.”
• Ex-bank robber: ‘I warned Louvre about security before jewel heist’
The report said that the Louvre had spent millions on new acquisitions “at the expense of the maintenance and renovation of buildings and technical facilities, particularly those related to safety and security”.
In response, Laurence des Cars, the Louvre’s director, said she agreed with most of the auditors’ recommendations and the management had already made similar proposals. She noted, however, that the jewels were stolen weeks before work on security improvements was due to start.
Four suspects are in custody but the stolen jewels have not been found.
It has emerged that one of the four worked briefly as a security guard at another Paris museum, the Pompidou Centre.