CNN: Russians hacked White House computers

Russian hackers penetrated the White House's computer system and gained access to information including private details of President Obama's schedule, according to a report by CNN Tuesday.

Citing investigators not identified by name, the news network reported that unidentified Russia-based hackers first accessed State Department networks and used that to gain access to the White House systems. No classified information was accessed, the White House told CNN.

Mark Stroh, spokesman for the National Security Council, downplayed the impact.

"This report is not referring to a new incident — it is speculating on the attribution of the activity of concern on the unclassified EOP network that the White House disclosed last year,'' he said. "Any such activity is something we take very seriously. In this case, as we made clear at the time, we took immediate measures to evaluate and mitigate the activity. As has been our position, we are not going to comment on the referenced article's attribution to specific actors."

Ben Rhodes, deputy White House national security adviser, said on CNN, "We do not believe that our classified systems were compromised.''

Administration officials confirmed there was a cyberattack last year on unclassified White House computer networks but said no classified files were breached. Officials declined to point the finger at Russia, but said Russian interests are among the suspects.

At the time of the incident, the White House said in a statement that "our computers and systems have not been damaged, though some elements of the unclassified network have been affected. The temporary outages and loss of connectivity for our users is solely the result of measures we have taken to defend our networks."

Rhodes declined to comment on any of the news reports, saying "we don't confirm cyberattacks."

In general, Rhodes said, "we have classified systems that are secure." While there are constant threats, Rhodes said the White House is constantly fortifying its systems.