Matthew Wilson has five job openings he can't fill at his small, Canberra-based company. And that's right now, never mind the rest of the year.

What industry has such an unquenched thirst for skills? Cyber security.

Dan Tehan, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Cyber Security and Telstra chief executive Andrew Penn at the opening of Telstra's first Security Operation Centre in Sydney last year. Credit:Louie Douvis

Mr Wilson is chief executive at the firm Penten, which has grown from four staff 2½ years ago to 40 people today. The firm specialises in protecting super-sensitive government and defence information, and has developed software that protects military drones by sending out artificially intelligent decoys.

"If I had the people, I would be able to fill those [jobs] today," he said. "And that's just today. That doesn't include the forecasts that I've got for the rest of the year. We should be about 50 people by mid-year to meet our current order book and my grand concern right now is our ability to get to that point."