US Vice President Mike Pence regularly used personal email to conduct public business while serving as governor of Indiana, his office acknowledged in a statement Friday.

"Similar to previous governors, during his time as Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence maintained a state email account and a personal email account," Marc Lotter, the vice president's press secretary, said in an email.

The private email account was first reported by the Indianapolis Star, which also reported that the AOL account was compromised last year by hackers. The paper cited emails obtained through a public-records request. Pence used that account to discuss matters ranging from security at his residence to how the state was responding to terror incidents around the world.

Pence directed an outside law firm to review all of his communications and ensure any emails related to his work as governor were transferred to and archived by the state, Lotter said. That process is ongoing.