Hackers Delete Servers of Indian Grocery Startup KiranaPro - 1

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Hackers Delete Servers of Indian Grocery Startup KiranaPro

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

Hackers deleted all data belonging to the Indian grocery startup KiranaPro by wiping its servers. The company’s source code and all customer information, including sensitive data, have been destroyed

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • Hackers destroy KiranaPro’s company and customer data.
  • The startup’s CEO told TechCrunch that malicious actors got access to its AWS account around May 24, and they noticed on May 26.
  • The company suspects a former employee who didn’t return credentials.

According to TechCrunch’s exclusive , Deepak Ravindran, KiranaPro co-founder and CEO, confirmed that malicious actors have attacked the company, but the method remains unclear. The company is investigating the incident with assistance from GitHub’s support team.

KiranaPro, launched in December 2024, allows users to buy their groceries from local shops and supermarkets in their local area. The startup had reached a user base of 50,000 with over 30,000 active customers across 50 cities in India. The company operates the Indian government’s Open Network for Digital Commerce as a buyer app, but it cannot process orders at the moment.

The startup suspects that the attackers gained access through a former employee, as they used multi-factor authentication on its AWS account, and it had been changed.

“We can only log in through the IAM [Identity and Access Management] account, through which we can see that the EC2 instances don’t exist anymore, but we are not able to get any logs or anything because we don’t have the root account,” said Kumar to TechCrunch.

The startup expects to track multiple traces and IP addresses to find the hacker and is also filing cases against a former employee who never submitted credentials

Before the incident, KiranaPro expected to expand to 100 more cities within the next few months. The company had been backed by Unpopular Ventures, Turbostart, and Blume Ventures.

Despite the concerning situation, Ravindran remains optimistic and said they will fight for justice and continue to develop their services and technology. The CEO shared an encouraging message on his Instagram account :

Even if they delete our code, they can’t delete our courage. Even if they hack our servers, they can’t hack our spirit. We built it once. We’ll build it again.

Malicious actors have also been targeting other companies in India, including India’s largest health insurer Star Health —the hacker xenZen recently sent death threats to its CEO and CFO .

Elsa: FDA’s New AI Tool To Streamline Drug Review Process - 2

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Elsa: FDA’s New AI Tool To Streamline Drug Review Process

  • Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Elsa as their new generative AI tool to accelerate internal work, such as scientific reviews, data management, and protocol assessments. The tool was rolled out ahead of schedule and under budget.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • Elsa helps FDA staff summarize documents and compare drug safety labels.
  • The tool was rolled out ahead of schedule and under budget.
  • Experts raised concerns about security and real-world integration of AI.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary stated that the Elsa tool was released ahead of schedule and under budget because of the collaboration between in-house experts across the centers.

Elsa is a large language model–powered tool designed to help FDA staff read, write, and summarize. It can highlight adverse events in drug reports, compare labels quickly, and even generate code for building nonclinical databases.

This move comes as part of the FDA’s broader plan to bring AI into everyday operations. Elsa was first tested with scientific reviewers and will now be available across the agency in a secure cloud environment. Officials say the system does not learn from data submitted by drug companies, which helps keep sensitive information safe.

FDA Chief AI Officer Jeremy Walsh declared that the release of Elsa marks the beginning of the AI era at the FDA. “AI is no longer a distant promise but a dynamic force enhancing and optimizing the performance and potential of every employee.”

Elsa is already in use for reviewing clinical trial protocols faster and identifying high-priority inspection sites, as noted by Reuters .

However, concerns have been raised, as noted by Axios . Some public health experts question how secure the tool really is and whether it can be integrated quickly into daily workflows. According to Stat , some FDA employees also expressed unease, saying the pilot mainly focused on text summarization and may not reflect broader performance.