French crown jewels vanish in a few minutes

A ladder, an angle grinder and a scooter and the French crown jewels vanished in a few minutes from the Louvre yesterday.

It wasn’t Tom Cruise abseiling down a wire, but it was a stark reminder that even the most iconic institutions, with centuries of prestige and millions in security infrastructure, are vulnerable.

For businesses the crown jewels are not locked in a glass case, they are intangible: Proprietary algorithms

Customer data

Strategic know-how

Brand equity

Innovation

These assets do sparkle, just in a different way, they can be as valuable and just as vulnerable.

The Louvre crown jewels theft was loud, audacious and the smashed cabinet, gap in the display and video evidence showed what had been taken. But in business it is mainly silent and invisible and discovered too late.

What are the lessons?

Security is not just the responsibility of IT. It’s everyone’s, it’s cultural and everyone needs to understand the value of intangible assets.

Your crown jewels are just as likely to be stolen at 9:30 on a Monday morning as they are any hour of any day, throughout the year.