Mobile phone data of former intel. chief permanently deleted - witness

COLOMBO (News1st): The mobile phone data of a former intelligence chief has been permanently deleted, a presidential commission probing last year's April 21 attacks heard on Wednesday. The data had been deleted through the 'factory reset' option, Sampath Kumara, a chief police inspector at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)'s Digital Forensics Laboratory said. The factory reset option is used to remove user data from an electronic device and restore it back to the original manufacturer settings. The presidential commission had instructed the CID to uncover material on the attacks, if available, on the mobile phone and laptop of former State Intelligence Service director Nilantha Jayawardana. Kumara, giving evidence on Wednesday said, a forensic study had been carried out into both electronic devices, and that the data on the mobile phone could not be retrieved.