← All situations
Emergency Mode
Someone else is in your email
Your primary email account has been reached by someone else. Regain control, remove their persistence, then work through what the mailbox could reset.
What this assumes
- Use a device you have reason to trust. If a device may be compromised, do not use it for this.
- Normal internet access.
Do these first
Containment. Minutes matter here and nothing else does.
- Change the password from a trusted device.
- Sign out all other sessions.
- Open the forwarding and filter settings and remove any rule you did not create. This is what ends their continuing access.
- Check delegated or shared access and remove anyone unexpected.
- Confirm the recovery phone and recovery address are yours.
Afterwards
When the immediate situation is over, a plan is what keeps it from happening the same way twice. That needs an account; this page never will.
Build a plan