Joshua Beeman permanently appointed Penn’s chief information officer, IT vice president

Joshua Beeman was permanently appointed as Penn's chief information officer and vice president for information technology on Monday. 

Beeman — a 1996 School of Arts and Sciences graduate — is set to begin his role this April, pending approval by the University's Board of Trustees. Beeman has held the role in an interim capacity since August 2025.

As CIO and vice president for IT, Beeman is responsible for providing guidance to University leaders, collaborating with technology partners, and delivering IT systems. He will lead Penn’s Information Systems and Computing department, which manages IT services across campus.

In a March 17 press release, Dingfield wrote that Beeman had been “instrumental in advancing Penn’s technology infrastructure,” and that his appointment was a demonstration of the University's “confidence” in his leadership.

At Penn, Beeman previously served in a variety of ISC roles, including as associate vice president of IT and associate CIO. During his time at the University, he helped lead the redesign of Penn’s IT security framework and supported the creation of the Penn Advanced Research Computing Center.

“Josh has spent years building partnerships across Penn's schools and centers, and he understands how technology enables the academic enterprise — from research computing to the classroom,” Jackson wrote in the release.

Over the past year — under Beeman's tenure as interim vice president and CIO — Penn has been affected by several cybersecurity attacks. 

In October 2025, mass emails containing criticisms of the University’s security practices and institutional purpose were sent to students, faculty, alumni, and parents from accounts linked to the Graduate School of Education.

Following the series of emails, individuals claiming responsibility for the security breach released thousands of pages of internal University files.

In a November 2025 message to the Penn community, Beeman wrote that Penn has a “robust information security program,” and that the hackers accessed the University's system due to a “sophisticated identity impersonation.”

Beeman added that University staff “rapidly locked down the systems and prevented further unauthorized access.”

A University spokesperson wrote to The Daily Pennsylvanian in February that administrators conducted a “comprehensive review” of the data, notified individuals whose information had been compromised, and that the process was now “complete.” 

A court filing submitted shortly after — as part of an ongoing class action lawsuit against the University over the October 2025 data breach at GSE — stated that fewer than 10 people were affected by the incident.

Days later, the Cybercrime group ShinyHunters took responsibility for the data breach and released thousands of pages of additional internal University files.

A ShinyHunters spokesperson told the DP that the group chose to release Penn's data after the University failed to pay a ransom. 

“We asked for a reasonable $1M to prevent the release,” the spokesperson said at the time. “It was a simple email sent to UPenn with our demands, they did not reply, and we do not preserve the emails.”

According to the group’s spokesperson, the demands were submitted through a general information technology email address.

In December 2025, Penn investigated a separate cybersecurity breach of its Oracle E-Business Suite servers that compromised the personal information of University-affiliated individuals across multiple states.

While it was unclear how many individuals were affected in total, according to information filed with the Office of the Maine Attorney General, the breach affected 1,488 state residents.

Beeman previously worked for the United States Federal Reserve Bank and currently serves as the chair of the Technical Advisory Committee for the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California at Berkeley.

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