Alan DeKok’s Path From Physics to Network Security

When Alan DeKok started a facet mission in network security, he didn’t anticipate to begin a 27-year profession. Actually, he didn’t initially got down to work in computing in any respect.

DeKok studied nuclear physics earlier than making the change to part of community computing that’s foundational however—like nuclear physics—largely invisible to these in a roundabout way concerned within the subject. Ultimately, a mission he began as a passion grew to become a full-time job: sustaining one of many main techniques that helps preserve the internet safe.

Right this moment, he leads the FreeRADIUS Project, which he cofounded within the late Nineteen Nineties to develop what’s now probably the most extensively used Distant Authentication Dial-In Consumer Service (RADIUS) software program. FreeRADIUS is an open-source server that gives back-end authentication for many main internet service providers. It’s utilized by world monetary establishments, Wi-Fi providers like Eduroam, and Fortune 50 firms. DeKok can also be CEO of InkBridge Networks, which maintains the server and supplies help for the businesses that use it.

Reflecting on almost three a long time of expertise main FreeRADIUS, DeKok says he grew to become an knowledgeable in distant authentication “nearly by chance,” and the important thing to his profession has largely been luck. “I actually consider that it’s getting ready your self for luck, being open to it, and having the abilities to capitalize on it.”

From Farming to Physics

DeKok grew up on a farm outdoors of Ottawa rising strawberries and raspberries. “Sitting on a tractor within the warmth will not be notably fascinating,” says DeKok, who was extra interested by working with 8-bit computer systems than crops. As a scholar at Carleton University, in Ottawa, he discovered his technique to physics as a result of he was interested by math however most popular the practicality of science.

Whereas pursuing a grasp’s diploma in physics, additionally at Carleton, he labored on a water-purification system for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, an underground observatory then being constructed on the backside of a nickel mine. He would get up at 4:30 within the morning to drive as much as the location, descend 2 kilometers, then enter one of many world’s deepest clean-room facilities to work on the mission. The system managed to realize one atom of impurity per cubic meter of water, “which is fairly insane,” DeKok says.

However after his grasp’s diploma, DeKok determined to take a special route. Though he discovered nuclear physics fascinating, he says he didn’t see it as his life’s work. In the meantime, the Ph.D. college students he knew had been “fanatical about physics.” He had stored up his computing abilities via his schooling, which concerned loads of programming, and determined to search for jobs at computing firms. “I used to be out of physics. That was it.”

Nonetheless, physics taught him precious classes. For one, “You must perceive the massive image,” DeKok says. “The flexibility to inform the big-picture story in requirements, for instance, is extraordinarily essential.” This ability helps DeKok clarify to requirements our bodies how a protocol acts as one hyperlink in all the chain of occasions that should happen when a person desires to entry the web.

He additionally realized that “strategies are extra essential than information.” It’s straightforward to search for info, however physics taught DeKok find out how to break down an issue into manageable items to provide you with an answer. “Once I was ultimately working within the {industry}, the methods that got here naturally to me, popping out of physics, didn’t appear to be taught as nicely to the individuals I knew in engineering,” he says. “I might catch up in a short time.”

Founding FreeRADIUS

In 1996, DeKok was employed as a software program developer at an organization known as Gandalf, which made tools for ISDN, a precursor to broadband that enabled digital transmission of information over phone strains. Gandalf went below a couple of yr later, and he joined CryptoCard, an organization offering {hardware} units for two-factor authentication.

Whereas at CryptoCard, DeKok started spending extra time working with a RADIUS server. When customers wish to connect with a community, RADIUS acts as a gatekeeper and verifies their id and password, determines what they’ll entry, and tracks periods. DeKok moved on to a brand new firm in 1999, however he didn’t wish to lose the networking abilities he had developed. No different open-source RADIUS servers had been being actively developed on the time, and he noticed a spot out there.

The identical yr, he began FreeRADIUS in his free time and it “step by step took over my life,” DeKok says. He continued to work on the open-source software program as a passion for a number of years whereas bouncing round firms in California and France. “Virtually by chance, I grew to become one of many extra senior individuals within the house. Then I doubled down on that and began the enterprise.” He based NetworkRADIUS (now known as InkBridge Networks) in 2008.

By that time, FreeRADIUS was already being utilized by 100 million people daily. The corporate now employs consultants in Canada, France, and the United Kingdom who work collectively to help FreeRADIUS. “I’d say not less than half of the individuals on this planet get on the web by being authenticated via my software program,” DeKok estimates. He attributes that progress largely to the software program being open source. Initially a technique to enter the market with little funding, going open supply has allowed FreeRADIUS to compete with greater firms as an industry-leading product.

Though the software program is essential for sustaining safe networks, most individuals aren’t conscious of it as a result of it really works behind the scenes. DeKok is usually met with shock that it’s nonetheless in use. He compares RADIUS to a constructing basis: “You want it, however you by no means give it some thought till there’s a crack in it.”

27 Years of Fixes

Over time, DeKok has maintained FreeRADIUS by regularly making small fixes. Like utilizing a ratcheting software to make a change inch by inch, “you shouldn’t underestimate that ratchet impact of tiny little fixes that add up over time,” he says.

He’s seen the mission via minor patches and extra important fixes, like when researchers exposed a widespread vulnerability DeKok had been making an attempt to repair since 1998. He additionally watched a would-be successor to the community protocol, Diameter, rise and fall in recognition within the 2000s and 2010s. (Diameter gained traction in cell functions however has step by step been phased out within the shift to 5G.) Although Diameter gives enhancements, RADIUS is way less complicated and already extensively applied, giving it an edge, DeKok explains.

And he stays assured about its future. “Folks ask me, ‘What’s subsequent for RADIUS?’ I don’t see it dying.” Estimating that billions of {dollars} of kit run RADIUS, he says, “It’s by no means going to go away.”

About his personal profession, DeKok says he plans to maintain engaged on FreeRADIUS, exploring new markets and merchandise. “I by no means anticipated to have an organization and lots of people working for me, my title on every kind of requirements, and prospects everywhere in the world. However it labored out that means.”

This text seems within the March 2026 print challenge as “Alan DeKok.”