This white paper by Beyond Identity argues that prevention—not recovery—must be the new focus in combating ransomware. It outlines how modern ransomware exploits password-based systems, particularly via Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), phishing, and Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS). The paper highlights that recovery costs, downtime, brand damage, and legal risks often exceed \$1.85 million per incident. It proposes eliminating passwords altogether in favor of passwordless, device-bound cryptographic credentials to block unauthorized access, lateral movement, and data disclosure. The solution supports a zero trust model for secure, continuous authentication.

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