It seems unbelievable, but neither the Louvre, with its millennia-old treasures, nor NASA, with all its space technology, have escaped the same carelessness as any human using absurdly easy-to-guess passwords.

Yes, exactly. What might sound like a joke is actually a global problem that has cost millions and put scientific, artistic, and corporate secrets at risk. So, it’s not just your mom when she sets her birthdate, 1234, or your pet’s name as her password for the bank account. You’re not the only one!

The Louvre’s password was… “LOUVRE”

Seriously, not a joke. The surveillance system of the most famous museum in the world had as its password… LOUVRE. Who could have guessed!! Impossible!!

Meanwhile, NASA, yes, NASA was caught using combinations like “123456” or the classic “password” in internal accounts… Critical risks, security breaches, and more than one scare that could have been avoided with, let’s say, a little more creativity.

History repeats itself

The French agency ANSSI had already warned that the Louvre’s security was “insufficient to protect its collections” and of course, if the password protecting the Mona Lisa could be guessed by a sleepy intern, well, that’s that.

It is estimated that 32% of employees at the 500 richest companies in the world use the company’s name as their password, according to NordPass. And yes, the classics “123456” “password” and “admin” continue to top the ranking of the worst passwords on the planet. Doesn’t anyone have a bit of imagination?

Mexico, NASA, and Sony

In 2025, CobraEgyLeaks (a hacker) published on the dark web more than 156,000 combinations of emails and passwords. The most common ones, to no one’s surprise, were “123456”, “admin” and “000000”.

And of course, Sony Pictures was not spared either. In 2014, hackers stole unreleased movies and internal emails because their passwords were as mind-blowing as “Sony123” and “password”. Wow, security ffffirst.

The cost of a bad password

According to Verizon, 86% of web application attacks start with compromised credentials, and each breach costs companies an average of 4.45 million dollars… all because of not setting secure passwords!

And the most worrying part is that 73% of people reuse the same password across multiple services, according to Microsoft. If one gets stolen, they all get stolen.

Why are we like this?

Because passwords are a hassle. Remembering them is a pain, creating them is tedious, and changing them… even worse. So we choose the easy route, even though we know we shouldn’t.

It’s the “I’ll do it tomorrow” culture applied to the keyboard, and the Louvre is no exception, of course.

The future is taking another path

Giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft are already working to eliminate traditional passwords. “Passkeys” are trending, and they are encrypted, allowing you to log in without typing anything.

Three basic things for your passwords

Create unique and complex passwords.
Enable two-step verification.
Don’t reuse passwords, even if it’s a bit more work.
Be original, add capital letters, numbers, and symbols.

From Paris to Houston, from museums to space centers, the biggest security hole isn’t in technology, but in the human factor. You don’t need an expert hacker to bring down a system; it’s enough for someone to try “password123”. So, check your passwords, pay attention to them, and don’t reuse them. You might not have the Louvre’s jewels, but they do bring out something in you, sure.