For the first time, Hillary Clinton addressed the controversy surrounding the personal email account that she used during her time as the secretary of state.

The likely 2016 presidential candidate made remarks about the ongoing email controversy in a press conference on Tuesday following her speech about women's rights at the United Nations.

The controversy began last Monday after the New York Times published an article revealing that Clinton used personal emails while she worked in the Obama Administration. As a result, this may have been a violation against federal guidelines and could have made important information vulnerable to hack attacks, reported the NYT.

During her remarks about the issue, the former first lady said she used a private account out of "convenience" and admitted that it was a bad decision for her to conduct State Department-related business on a separate email account.

"When I got to work as secretary of state, I opted for convenience to use my personal email account, which was allowed by the State Department," she said, according to Business Insider.

However, "looking back, it would have been better to use separate phones and two separate e-mail accounts. I thought one (mobile) device would be simpler. Obviously, it hasn't worked out that way." she added, reports USA Today.

Clinton added that she did not exchange classified information on her personal e-mail while she worked as the nation's top diplomat.

"I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material. So I'm certainly well aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material," said the former New York senator.

Clinton also insisted that her personal email server was very secure.

"The system we used was set up for President Clinton's office. It had numerous safeguards. It was guarded on property guarded by the Secret Service and there were no security breaches," she said.

Clinton also dismissed the idea that the backlash over her email account will hurt her presidential campaign.

"I trust the American people to make their decisions about political and public matters and I feel that I've taken unprecedented steps to provide these work-related emails, they're going to be in the public domain, and Americans will find that interesting and I look forward to having that discussion," she said.

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