ANU Vice chancellor Brian Schmidt says an analysis by the university “and government partners” has found there “was no theft of personal or financial data” in the “IT systems infiltration,” of the university, announced ten days ago.

This carefully worded statement will not end speculation that the university was penetrated by spooks looking for Australian government secrets, which ANU national security scholars might leave on computer desktops, in folders labelled Australian Eyes Only. But then again people watching for movement on grassy-knolls are hard to convince.

Whatever, if anything, was nicked, Professor Schmidt does not seem too anxious about a repeat, simply suggesting ANU staff and students change their passwords and that they do what he does and use a password manager, “to help me use impossible to memorise (and very difficult to crack) passwords across all the accounts I have across my life.” CMM’s suspects he does not use cosmicpinot.