  Given the ever-increasing prevalence of technology in modern life, there is a
corresponding increase in the likelihood of digital devices being pertinent to
a criminal investigation or civil litigation. As a direct consequence, the
number of investigations requiring digital forensic expertise is resulting in
huge digital evidence backlogs being encountered by law enforcement agencies
throughout the world. It can be anticipated that the number of cases requiring
digital forensic analysis will greatly increase in the future. It is also
likely that each case will require the analysis of an increasing number of
devices including computers, smartphones, tablets, cloud-based services,
Internet of Things devices, wearables, etc. The variety of new digital evidence
sources pose new and challenging problems for the digital investigator from an
identification, acquisition, storage and analysis perspective. This paper
explores the current challenges contributing to the backlog in digital
forensics from a technical standpoint and outlines a number of future research
topics that could greatly contribute to a more efficient digital forensic
process.
