A virus circulating on the WhatsApp messaging app has alerted the officials to release a public warning.

Two infected files with a virus have the potential to breach security and steal personal and banking information. According to the advisory released late in December, the files included false data about National Investigation Agency (NIA) and National Defense Academy (NDA) in Pune.

The warning revealed that the documents were named "NDA-ranked-8th-toughest-College-in-the-world-to-get-into.xls" and "NIA-selection-order-.xls." The virus can extract important information such as personal data, login details, banking information, and PIN numbers.

Only the excel files were identified. However, pdf and word files that may have the same WhatsApp virus and can infect mobile phones have not been discovered yet.

According to the officials from the central security agencies, the likely targeted individuals are those from the paramilitary, defense, and police forces.

"As these two organizations are very popular and known within the country and abroad and there is curiosity to know more about them, it is possible that it may affect the mobile phones of people interested in these subjects," the officials noted.

The warning has been disseminated to the members of the targeted groups. Further, individuals who received the message are advised to inform their information technology department to help in the dissemination of the warning.

Meanwhile, another scam is surfacing in the same messenger stating that WhatsApp will close "tomorrow at 6 p.m." unless users will pay to help the company "solve this problem."

The message stated that "we require our active users to forward this message to each of the people in your contact list to confirm our active users." PC Advisor reported that this communication is a hoax.

PC Advisor said that to avoid the WhatsApp virus, the malicious messages should be deleted immediately and never download any document from unknown senders. For those who have already clicked and downloaded the file, the website has included a guide on how to remove Android malware from devices.