The first step in securing an employee ' s account following an email hacking incident involves restoring access to the email services if necessary and immediately changing the password to prevent unauthorized access. This action ensures that the attacker is locked out of the account as quickly as possible. While enabling two-factor authentication, scanning links and attachments, and disabling automatic file sharing are important security measures, they come into play after ensuring that the compromised account is first secured by changing its password to halt any ongoing unauthorized access.