Digital quantum forensics: future challenges and prospects

Recent developments in technology suggest that within the next one to two decades some form(s) of quantum computing device will become viable. Once such devices become generally available they will doubtless be employed by cybercriminals to perform brute-force decryption tasks that were previously infeasible. This paper attempts to address the question of how digital forensic investigation techniques will need to develop in order to respond to the challenges posed by such future generation computing devices.