According to Newsweek, the attacks happened sometime around midyear and were reported to the Obama and McCain camps by the U.S. Secret Service , the FBI and even the White House. The story does not detail how the government learned about the intrusions but said they assured the Obama camp that the break-ins didn't appear to be the work of his political opponents. A federal agent told Obama campaign officials that they had an IT security problem "way bigger than what you understand. You have been compromised, and a serious amount of files have been loaded off your system," the article stated.