I wrote my PhD thesis on a Windows 3.1 machine (I think, whatever Windows for Workgroups was). I found an entire IBM PS 3/2 in a skip and set it up in the basement of our building, making myself a nice space to play solitaire contemplate molecules.
Everyone was really impressed that I had my own computer and an office space that didn't smell like radioactivity. I never did tell anyone that I put the computer in the skip in the first place so I could 'find' it, and I never actually asked about the basement space, I just annexed it. Anything done with enough confidence is indistinguishable from being officially authorized.