Spanish airline Air Europa is the latest victim of hackers in the airline industry. The company admitted that a cyber attack had occurred on the online payment system. Credit and debit card details of an unspecified number of customers are also said to have been stolen.

Air Europa says it has already contacted the affected travelers. Messages were also sent to the issuers of credit and debit cards via the payment service provider. Although the airline emphasizes that there are still no signs of fraudulent use of the stolen card data, it can be assumed that the issuing banks will not take a chance and will impose blocks as a precautionary measure and send new cards to their customers.

Regardless, affected customers should proactively contact their bank and arrange to exchange their payment card. As a rule, this is done free of charge in such cases. Most of the time you don't have a valid credit or debit card available until the replacement arrives.

In any case, Air Europa did not provide any further information about how many customers were actually affected. There is currently no information as to whether financial damage has already been caused. With debit and credit cards, this can usually be avoided using the chargeback process, as any transactions were not initiated by the cardholder. Depending on the card issuer, this process can range from simple and customer-friendly to complicated, lengthy and involving filling out several forms.