A British man has been charged in the US with hacking into thousands of computer systems, including those of the US army and Nasa, in an alleged attempt to steal confidential data.

Lauri Love, 28, is accused of causing millions of pounds of damage to the US government with a year-long hacking campaign waged from his home in Stradishall, a village in Suffolk.

Love was arrested on Friday by the National Crime Agency, dubbed "Britain's FBI", after an international investigation led by the US army's criminal investigation command.

His arrest was announced on Monday after US prosecutors filed an indictment in a federal court in Newark, New Jersey.

The New Jersey district attorney, Paul Fishman, said: "According to the indictment, Lauri Love and conspirators hacked into thousands of networks, including many belongingto the United States military and other government agencies.

"As part of their alleged scheme, they stole military data and personal identifying information belonging to servicemen and women. Such conduct endangers the security of our country and is an affront to those who serve."

Love is charged with one count of hacking into a US department or agency computer and one count of conspiring to do the same.

The indictment, which was released by the US department of justice on Monday, describes Love as a "sophisticated and prolific computer hacker who specialised in gaining access to the computer networks of large organisations, including government agencies, collecting confidential data including personally identifiable information from within the compromised networks, and exfiltrating the data out of the compromised networks".

He is accused of targeting the