Janfred Rieckers

Janfred is an eduroam expert, currently working at DFN, the German National Research and Education Network (NREN). He has been involved in eduroam since 2014, beginning as a student assistant in the Wi-Fi team at the University of Bremen. Today, Janfred manages the eduroam federation in Germany while completing an MSc in Computer Science at the University of Bremen.

His bachelor's thesis introduced a tool for analysing the security of eduroam logins, providing actionable insights for eduroam administrators. In his master's thesis, Janfred developed a novel EAP method using Passkeys, aimed at addressing several security and usability challenges in current eduroam deployments. This is now contributing to international standardisation efforts at the IETF, with Janfred actively involved in writing the standard for this EAP method.

Lightning Talk at TNC26

eduroam login made simple: how passkeys can help

Security in the eduroam login has been, and currently still is, a challenge. Most eduroam providers still rely on passwords to authenticate the users, and need to provide their users with instructions how to set up their devices securely.

Janfred's participation in the Future Talent Programme 2026 was supported by DFN-Verein.