San Diego County is facing tougher competition in the growing cyber security sector, and could lose business if it's complacent, local business leaders said.

With the Obama administration pouring billions into the technology sector, areas around the country are competing fiercely, said Duane Roth, director of the technology entrepreneur group Connect, and Michael Jones, president of The Security Network, a local trade group.

Charleston, S.C. has mounted a particularly significant challenge, Roth said. A business alliance there is seeking to gain cyber security work now handled in San Diego by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, or SpaWar. The agency administers a total of about $2.4 billion in contracts per year.

Since Charleston has its own SpaWar facilities, the challenge is particularly serious, Roth said.

"Cyber security's a huge area, not only in defense, but in everything ---- patient records, business practices, all kinds of things," Roth said. "We just can't take it for granted."

Cyber security's reach keeps expanding as the Internet and related communications technologies move further into the nation's infrastructure, Jones said. The "smart grid" that brings two-way communications between utilities and users is one example.

"There's a huge need to protect the information," Jones said. "If a bad person gets in, they could turn off the electricity. There's all kinds of things that could be done."

Military networks face the same challenge as they move toward being "interoperable," with common standards, Jones said. The easier it is for the networks to communicate with each other, the easier it will be for intruders to get in.

Part of the region's expertise will be put on display next week at a conference by The Security Network on robotics, information security and sensors. More information is available at www.thesecuritynetwork.org.

San Diego is one of the top areas for cyber security work, Jones said, but quantifying it more precisely is difficult because much of the activity is classified. It includes research centers such as UC San Diego and work performed by the region's large defense industry.

Stefan Savage, a noted cyber security expert at UCSD, said academic research is less vulnerable to a change in SpaWar operations than business activities, because SpaWar typically passes along money already allocated to a particular researcher.

Call staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at 760-739-6641. Read his blogs at bizblogs.nctimes.com.