I wouldn't be so quick to judge given the lack of detail. It's entirely possible given the relatively recent adversarial diplomatic back and forth between China

I wouldn't be so quick to judge given the lack of detail. It's entirely possible given the relatively recent adversarial diplomatic back and forth between China and Australia that this could be an APT style attack. Anecdotally I doubt federal government agencies would work with the ANU "over several months" to contain a threat if it was nothing more than a script kiddie.