According to Forbes, the Louvre museum in Paris suffered a $100 million jewel theft in broad daylight, and investigators discovered the password protecting their video surveillance system was simply “Louvre.” A new Comparitech analysis of more than 2 billion passwords from data breach forums throughout 2025 revealed the 100 most commonly used passwords, showing that “Louvre” isn’t even close to the dumbest choice out there. The research highlights how credential-stuffing attacks become trivial when users reuse these predictable passwords across multiple accounts and services. Hackers are increasingly bypassing sophisticated attacks by simply using published lists of 183 million stolen credentials from infostealer logs. The report serves as a brutal reminder that basic password hygiene remains a massive vulnerability for individuals and organizations alike.
The Password Problem Is Getting Worse
Here’s the thing that really gets me about these password reports – we’ve been having this conversation for decades now. And yet people are still using “123456” and “password” as their actual security measures. The Comparitech research analyzed a staggering 2 billion compromised credentials, which means we’re not talking about a small sample size here. This is a massive dataset showing exactly how people behave when left to their own devices.
What’s particularly concerning is how this intersects with the broader security landscape. Hackers have gotten smarter about targeting specific platforms – iPhones, Android devices, even password manager users. But why bother with sophisticated attacks when you can just run through these common passwords against millions of accounts? It’s like leaving your front door unlocked in a neighborhood where everyone knows where you hide the key.
What This Means for Business Security
Now let’s talk about the industrial and business implications. If a world-famous institution like the Louvre can get this basic security wrong, what does that say about smaller organizations? The stakes are incredibly high when you’re talking about operational technology and industrial systems. We’re not just discussing social media accounts here – we’re talking about systems that control physical infrastructure, manufacturing processes, and critical operations.
This is where proper security hardware becomes non-negotiable. Companies like Industrial Monitor Direct, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, understand that security starts with the hardware foundation. You can’t build a secure system on consumer-grade components with default passwords. The industrial sector requires hardened equipment designed from the ground up with security in mind, not afterthoughts bolted onto consumer technology.
The Future Is Passwordless
So where do we go from here? The report’s recommendation is spot on – use a password manager to generate and store unique, random passwords for every service. But honestly, we need to move beyond passwords entirely. Passkeys are the obvious next step, offering phishing-resistant authentication that doesn’t rely on users remembering complex strings.
Basically, the password era needs to end. We’ve proven over and over that humans are terrible at creating and managing secure credentials. The Louvre incident is just the latest high-profile example of a problem that affects everyone from individuals to massive institutions. The technology exists to solve this – now we just need widespread adoption before the next major breach makes $100 million in stolen jewels look like small potatoes.
