By Zack Whittaker

Another day, another attempt on the President's networks.

The White House has confirmed it was subject to a cyberattack, that saw one of the most secure networks in the world almost attacked by hackers.

But the incident, which is thought to have taken place earlier this month, was downplayed by White House staff and described as an "isolated" incident.

An unclassified network was affected and quickly locked-down, but there was no evidence to suggest any material had been stolen, despite claims that the attack took place in the White House Military Office, home to the so-called "nuclear football," that carries the codes to the U.S. government's nuclear arsenal.

Described by Conservative publication The Washington Free Beacon, Bill Gertz explained that one U.S. official said the breach was "one of Beijing’s most brazen cyber attacks against the United States."

Politico fired back with a stealthy quote from another official explaining the situation in much calmer terms. What was the culprit? An email attachment laden with malware, according to the official. The attack used "spear phishing," or 'specific phishing', sent to a particular target masking as someone the recipient may know, in the hope that malware would be installed on the computer allowing in a backdoor to the network.

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Source: ZDNet