President Obama made network-security geeks gasp with glee when he announced late last month that he would be appointing a cyber security "czar" who will focus on securing America's information technology infrastructure.

Maryland is home to a lot of major government agencies and military installations -- from the Social Security Administration in Woodlawn to Fort Meade, the NSA's home, in Anne Arundel County.

And there are many, many jobs and companies in Maryland that are tied directly to work on IT projects with these government agencies. Protecting network infrastructure has been one of those out-of-the-spotlight industries for years.

(Pictured here is Melissa Hathaway, who conducted a 60-day review of U.S. cyber security policy, while listening to Obama's announcement. Read her White House blog post on her review here.)

Sure, network security is absolutely critical, and a mistake could give a company or government a big black eye, but it hasn't been a very sexy preoccupation for the great American government bureaucracy -- certainly not as thrilling as space exploration or "shovel-ready" projects.

But now a U.S. president is pushing it, hard.

So, were Maryland techies in this field excited about Obama's pledge to ramp up cyber-security? Early reports I'm getting from a slew of small companies indicate: Heck, yes!

I'm working on a story about the topic, but I'd love to get some feedback here to help with my research.

(Photo courtesy of AFP/Getty Images)