A major online attack aimed at stealing passwords used for online gaming has been identified by internet security company McAfee.

10,000 web pages at least have been subjected to the assault, which was detected on Wednesday this past week.

"Given how quickly some of these attacks have come on, it does seem like some automation has gone on," said McAfee researcher Craig Schmugar.

The infected websites had a JavaScript code added, which allows the computers of visitors to the sites to be attacked.

Mr Schmugar explained: "You allow the people to go to the sites that they normally go to and pull off a low-scale attack that flies under the radar."

The source of the attack is believed to be in China.

All of the vulnerabilities that the hackers have exploited to date have been patched, so it is a matter of users ensuring that they have installed all necessary updates, Techworld reports.