In a world of fleeting photos on social feeds, Nick McGrath is making memories that last. After all, he preserves photos for posterity in stone.
The Victorian business owner started OnStone in 2012, creating works of art by spraying photos onto stone composite, then encasing them in recycled timber frames.
The unique, upcycled pieces are a charming alternative to canvas, paper or glass prints, luring repeat customers who love to display their favourite memories.
Orders flow in from across Australia and the globe to his Mornington Peninsula manufacturing facility for the handmade works, with the timber frames sourced from old hardwood fences and flooring.
The business was operating out of a shopfront in bustling South Melbourne, but the store was forced to close during the rolling COVID-19 lockdowns.
Today, Nick knows all too well that running a digital shopfront comes with extra cyber security risks.
He told Flying Solo that OnStone had been hit by a card testing incident, serving as a big wake-up call to the dangers lurking behind a keyboard.
“Nefarious people will buy card lists from the web – the Ticketmaster data breach comes to mind – and then they will find any website they can to start seeing if those cards they’ve ‘purchased’ will work,” he explained to the microbusiness site.
“They were making low-value transactions on our website, with the hope that once they got through with a card that worked, they could then go and exploit the card to its limit across the internet.”
In the article, he says the number of cards the criminals can attempt to use before their bank flags the threat is worrying.
“They’ll go to the website and try to buy a gift certificate for $50, for example,” Nick told Flying Solo.
“They fill out some information the first time and then use a script to just keep hammering the system and putting through seemingly thousands of transactions until they get a card through successfully. You have to be incredibly vigilant.”
Nick shared the details of the card testing incident with friends, and says one conversation in particular paid dividends.
His friend directed him to the Cyber Wardens course as a way to help further protect his business from online threats.
Nick told Flying Solo that the course was simple enough for any small business operator or staff member to understand.
“A lot of the information is common sense, but it was good to revisit those things like constantly backing up your data, removing old programs that may be lingering around, and being security conscious on password protection,” he says.
“The biggest takeaway was to be vigilant about backing up your data. I think you can become incredibly complacent about that. You might do it once and get it set up, but then you buy a new laptop or you migrate a system in-house and forget to back things up regularly.
“You might even think, ‘Well, am I still using Google Drive for this? Or am I now using OneDrive?’ There’s a multitude of areas where your data could be backed up. It’s easy to become complacent about your data just being in the cloud or just being physically backed up.”
And just like the emphasis he places on producing high-quality products, Nick is dedicated to maintaining the highest cyber security standards for OnStone’s digital storefront – and promoting best practices for his team.
This includes using LastPass for password management, implementing two-factor authentication for all processes, and refraining from storing customers’ credit card details.
He’s also urging others to enrol in the Cyber Wardens program and take one of the suite of free courses. There are a range of options to help boost your cyber security awareness, including a ten-minute Foundations course, a new Safe AI for small business course and regular webinars.
Go to cyberwardens.com.au/courses/ for more information.
