Alan DeKok’s Path From Physics to Web Safety

When Alan DeKok started a facet challenge in community safety, he didn’t count on to start out a 27-year profession. In actual fact, 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 challenge he began as a interest grew to become a full-time job: sustaining one of many major programs that helps maintain the web safe.

Alan DeKok

Employer

InkBridge Networks

Occupation

CEO

Training

Bachelor’s diploma in physics, Carleton College; grasp’s diploma in physics, Carleton College

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

Reflecting on almost three a long time of expertise main FreeRADIUS, DeKok says he grew to become an professional in distant authentication “virtually accidentally,” and the important thing to his profession has largely been luck. “I actually consider that it’s making ready your self for luck, being open to it, and having the talents 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 significantly attention-grabbing,” says DeKok, who was extra all for working with 8-bit computer systems than crops. As a pupil at Carleton College, in Ottawa, he discovered his strategy to physics as a result of he was all for 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 amenities to work on the challenge. 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 unique route. Though he discovered nuclear physics attention-grabbing, he says he didn’t see it as his life’s work. In the meantime, the Ph.D. college students he knew have been “fanatical about physics.” He had saved up his computing expertise by means of 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 invaluable classes. For one, “You must perceive the large image,” DeKok says. “The flexibility to inform the big-picture story in requirements, for instance, is extraordinarily essential.” This talent helps DeKok clarify to requirements our bodies how a protocol acts as one hyperlink in the complete chain of occasions that should happen when a person desires to entry the web.

He additionally discovered that “strategies are extra essential than information.” It’s simple to search for info, however physics taught DeKok tips on how to break down an issue into manageable items to provide you with an answer. “Once I was ultimately working within the {industry}, the strategies 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 knowledge over phone traces. Gandalf went beneath a few 12 months later, and he joined CryptoCard, an organization offering {hardware} gadgets for two-factor authentication.

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

The identical 12 months, he began FreeRADIUS in his free time and it “steadily took over my life,” DeKok says. He continued to work on the open-source software program as a interest for a number of years whereas bouncing round firms in California and France. “Nearly accidentally, I grew to become one of many extra senior individuals within the area. 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 individuals every day. The corporate now employs consultants in Canada, France, and the UK who work collectively to assist FreeRADIUS. “I’d say at the least half of the individuals on the planet get on the web by being authenticated by means of my software program,” DeKok estimates. He attributes that progress largely to the software program being open supply. Initially a strategy to enter the market with little funding, going open supply has allowed FreeRADIUS to compete with larger 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 device 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 challenge by means of minor patches and extra important fixes, like when researchers uncovered a widespread vulnerability DeKok had been attempting to repair since 1998. He additionally watched a would-be successor to the community protocol, Diameter, rise and fall in reputation within the 2000s and 2010s. (Diameter gained traction in cellular purposes however has steadily been phased out within the shift to 5G.) Although Diameter affords enhancements, RADIUS is much easier and already broadly carried out, 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 apparatus 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 all types of requirements, and prospects all around the world. However it labored out that approach.”

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

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