KiranaPro Data Breach Explained: Was It a Hack or Internal Sabotage?
What happened to KiranaPro’s data? That’s the burning question tech users and startup watchers are asking after the Indian grocery delivery platform experienced a catastrophic data wipe from its servers and GitHub repository. The incident left customers, investors, and the startup's own team scrambling for answers. While KiranaPro’s leadership points fingers at a former employee, uncertainty lingers over whether the breach was purely internal—or if an external cyberattack exploited weak offboarding practices.
KiranaPro, founded in 2024 and part of India's Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), serves more than 55,000 users across 50 cities. It offers a voice-based app to simplify grocery shopping in multiple local languages. But the trust it built with customers is now under scrutiny. After discovering their entire GitHub codebase had been deleted and back-end servers rendered inaccessible, the company issued conflicting narratives—first blaming internal misconduct, then admitting the possibility of an external hack due to failure in access control.
Poor Offboarding Practices Spark Crisis
At the heart of the controversy is a critical HR oversight: KiranaPro never disabled access for the ex-employee accused of the breach. Co-founder and CEO Deepak Ravindran admitted that the former team member’s credentials were still active when the deletion occurred. Despite these circumstances, Ravindran insists the issue stems from an internal data breach rather than a cybersecurity vulnerability.
“After careful investigation, we conclude that this was not a hack,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). But in a conversation with TechCrunch, Ravindran softened that stance, noting that a comprehensive forensic investigation was still pending. Without one, the company cannot definitively rule out the possibility that someone else accessed the employee’s account through methods like phishing, malware, or weak endpoint protection.
Internal Blame Game Without Solid Evidence
Ravindran publicly accused the former employee on social media, even posting a screenshot of their LinkedIn profile. However, he admitted to TechCrunch that the only evidence supporting the claim was a GitHub audit trail identifying the username linked to the deletion. There was no formal investigation, no endpoint scan, and no confirmed multi-factor authentication (MFA) check on the employee's devices.
KiranaPro CTO Saurav Kumar revealed a startling gap: there was no dedicated HR staff at the time, which meant the employee offboarding process wasn’t handled with due diligence. High-risk errors like this open the door to insider threats and negligent exposure, both of which are red flags for startups handling sensitive customer data.
Cloud Access Compromised, But Recovery Underway
The breach extended beyond GitHub. The startup also temporarily lost access to its Amazon Web Services (AWS) account, which held sensitive customer data and transaction histories. Fortunately, KiranaPro recovered its GitHub repository via employee-held backups and regained AWS access.
Still, how the AWS account was accessed remains a mystery. Ravindran claimed MFA was in place, and no one else had physical access to the device generating the codes. But the lack of a thorough security audit leaves the door open for unanswered questions. Did a third party breach AWS through stolen credentials? Could cloud misconfiguration or API misuse be to blame? These questions remain unanswered, even as KiranaPro assures that no customer data was downloaded or leaked.
Investor Concerns and Employee Fallout
This crisis comes at a precarious time. Despite recently raising ₹100 million (about $1.2 million) in seed funding from Blume Ventures, Unpopular Ventures, Turbostart, Olympic medalist PV Sindhu, and BCG MD Vikas Taneja, the startup has not fully paid its employees.
Ravindran acknowledged payroll delays, citing that the funds from the round have yet to be fully wired. Coupled with the data loss and the HR mismanagement that made it possible, this could signal deeper operational instability. For a young startup, such issues can damage investor confidence and stall momentum at a critical growth stage.
Legal Action on Hold as Investigation Stalls
Although KiranaPro claims to have enough evidence to file a police complaint, the formal process hasn’t started. Ravindran said the team is still reviewing options with legal advisors. Until a forensic audit is conducted and facts verified, the company remains in a gray zone—vulnerable to both reputational damage and regulatory scrutiny.
Startups operating on platforms like ONDC must maintain a high bar for data protection, given that they handle sensitive user data across multiple cities and languages. Failure to implement secure access protocols, enforce robust offboarding, and follow cybersecurity best practices could not only lead to data loss but also legal consequences under India's IT Act and consumer protection laws.
What Startups Can Learn from the KiranaPro Data Breach
KiranaPro’s story is more than just a case of internal mismanagement. It’s a cautionary tale for every startup in high-growth mode, especially those in fintech, healthtech, and e-commerce sectors. Here are some essential cybersecurity takeaways:
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Employee Offboarding Must Be Bulletproof: Disable all access upon termination—especially to platforms like GitHub, AWS, and databases.
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Use Enterprise-Grade MFA: Don’t rely solely on a single device or phone-based MFA. Use hardware keys or identity access management systems with audit trails.
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Perform Regular Forensic Audits: Be proactive, not reactive. Waiting until after a breach is too late.
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Secure Backups Are Non-Negotiable: Store them off-site and test recovery protocols regularly.
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Train All Staff on Cyber Hygiene: Even internal users with good intentions can become liabilities without proper training.
KiranaPro’s data breach shines a light on what happens when digital growth outpaces organizational maturity. With customer trust and investor relations on the line, the company must now repair not just systems but reputations. Until then, questions will continue swirling around what really happened—and whether this was truly an inside job or a cybersecurity incident waiting to happen.
For startups navigating rapid expansion, robust security governance isn’t just a best practice—it’s essential for survival in a high-risk digital economy.
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