"At any given moment, perhaps during a natural disaster or a terrorist attack," writes Time's Ben Wiseman, "Pentagon Twitter accounts might send out false information. As each tweet corroborated another, and covert Russian agents amplified the messages even further afield, the result could be panic and confusion." It isn't clear, however, whether any accounts were compromised by the Russian attempts, which were made after the 2016 election.

The problem isn't confined to Twitter, of course. Facebook recently reported that it had found fake accounts on its own social network created to manipulate public opinion with fake news and disinformation. Time notes that government officials believe the original 2016 email scandal is only a small, more visible part of an ongoing Russian attempt to attack the foundation of the American democratic system. "If there has ever been a clarion call for vigilance and action against a threat to the very foundation of our democratic political system," testified former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, "this episode is it."