After its data was wiped, KiranaPro’s co-founder cannot rule out an external hack

Indian grocery supply startup KiranaPro’s current data loss story has extra holes than Swiss cheese, because the startup stays unclear whether or not the incident was an inner breach or an exterior hack.

Final week, the Bengaluru-based startup found that it couldn’t entry its back-end servers and that each one its knowledge, together with its app code, had been deleted from GitHub. The startup on Friday blamed a former worker for the breach. Nonetheless, in an interview, KiranaPro co-founder and CEO Deepak Ravindran conceded that the corporate had not deactivated the worker’s account after they departed the corporate and can’t rule out the opportunity of subsequent malicious misuse of their account.

“If we go deeper, now we have to do an actual forensic investigation. We’re going to speak [about] this with our board, the traders, and we’re going to get a proper opinion on that additionally with our authorized advisers,” Ravindran instructed TechCrunch.

Earlier on Friday, Ravindran claimed in a post on X that the incident that affected its knowledge was an inner breach.

“After cautious investigation, we conclude that this was not a hack. No exterior celebration penetrated our ordering or fee programs, exploited vulnerabilities, or bypassed safety protocols,” he wrote.

The co-founder additionally explicitly shared a screenshot of a LinkedIn profile of one in every of KiranaPro’s former staff on X on Thursday, alleging that that they had deleted the startup’s code. (TechCrunch is just not sharing the submit’s hyperlink, because the startup has but to supply concrete proof supporting its place.)

“[T]his was an inner knowledge breach. Particularly, it was the results of actions taken by a trusted inner worker who had professional entry to our programs,” the co-founder wrote in his submit on Friday. “This particular person deliberately deleted essential server logs whereas they had been being examined and/or edited, an motion that goes instantly in opposition to our insurance policies, our ideas, and the belief we place in our workforce.”

When TechCrunch requested if KiranaPro might rule out whether or not any third celebration had maliciously gained entry to the previous worker’s account, Ravindran couldn’t.

“We now have to do a whole forensic examine on the corporate. We now have to do the whole IP scan. We now have to have a look at the place the tracks occurred. We now have to examine the computer systems, MacBooks, and no matter is used. Every little thing must be accomplished. Then now we have to spend cash … so, that’s why we determined to not,” he instructed TechCrunch.

Then what was the idea of Ravindran’s allegation? It was a GitHub response, a duplicate of which he shared with TechCrunch.

The response included a username, which Ravindran stated was related to the previous worker.

“All now we have is the emails that we received from GitHub, stating that [the former employee’s username] as a person is the one who deleted the account. We haven’t accomplished the investigation additional,” Ravindran instructed TechCrunch.

Former worker’s account was by no means offboarded

Launched in late 2024, KiranaPro operates as a purchaser app on the Indian authorities’s Open Community for Digital Commerce. The startup permits greater than 55,000 prospects in 50 cities to buy groceries from their native retailers and close by supermarkets utilizing its voice-based interface. The corporate additionally helps native language inputs, together with English, Hindi, Malayalam, and Tamil.

Ravindran acknowledged that they determined to name out the previous worker based mostly on the corporate’s “perception system,” as they declare the previous worker deleted the information after their sudden termination.

Nonetheless, the startup stated it isn’t conscious if there have been sufficient protections on the previous worker’s units, similar to multi-factor authentication, to limit malicious third-party entry, like malware.

The corporate confirmed it didn’t take away the worker’s entry to its knowledge and GitHub account following his departure.

“Worker offboarding was not being dealt with correctly as a result of there was no full-time HR,” KiranaPro’s chief know-how officer, Saurav Kumar, confirmed to TechCrunch.

Firm restores AWS account and GitHub knowledge

Alongside its code saved in GitHub, KiranaPro additionally misplaced entry to its Amazon Internet Companies (AWS) account, which included its buyer knowledge and their transaction particulars.

Ravindran instructed TechCrunch that the GitHub knowledge was restored after getting its backup from one in every of their staff. The startup additionally regained entry to its AWS account together with its buyer knowledge.

Each the co-founder and CTO stated the AWS account was protected by multi-factor authentication, however neither might say how the account was accessed, as no person else had bodily entry to Ravindran’s cellphone, which generates the multi-factor code.

Nonetheless, Ravindran claimed that the shopper knowledge saved within the AWS cloud remained intact and was not accessed by any third events, nor was it downloaded by the previous worker in query.

“As a result of if that’s the case, I’ll get its notification on e mail or something [sic],” he stated.

That stated, Ravindran acknowledged that the startup has sufficient proof to file a proper criticism with the police, however stated that its investigation is ongoing.

The startup has additionally not absolutely paid its present staff, the corporate’s co-founder confirmed, quickly after the corporate raised a seed spherical of ₹100 million Indian rupees (about $1.2 million), which Ravindran stated has but to be absolutely wired.

The startup counts Blume Ventures, Unpopular Ventures, and Turbostart amongst its institutional enterprise backers, in addition to Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and Boston Consulting Group managing director Vikas Taneja amongst its angel traders. It has 15 staff situated in Bengaluru and Kerala.