The perpetrators of cybercrime are developing their methods in parallel with developments in various emerging fields, such as the Internet of things (IoT), blockchain, autonomous vehicles, quantum computing, and ransomware. Ransomware or malware affected phishing emails, spam, information warfare, carding, phishing scams, and identity theft are just a few examples. This makes digital forensics a vital field of study for academics, professionals, and researchers. In recent years, the propagation of illegal, obscene, or offensive content, particularly for harassment purposes (for example, cyberstalking, internet trolling, cyberbullying, cyber-racism, online predators) and threats are increasing concerns for both security and privacy. This has paved the way for new developments and applications for digital forensics, security, and privacy in emerging technologies. In order to gather and examine digital evidence in current software frameworks, we face the "built-in" question of how to develop and build forensic awareness in software applications, such that a cooperative environment can be created for digital forensic purposes. The internet has made it easier to access open-source software by offering an incentive for hackers to conduct confidential attacks.

Another challenge in the recent era of emerging technologies is at the hardware end, since the rapid expansion of networks and devices in global communication and networking has made the investigation of cyber-attacks difficult. For law enforcement, national security, and information security, the areas of digital forensics and cybercrime inquiries are now extremely relevant. Quantum computing technology has significant potential to significantly change the field of cybersecurity, with significant opportunities and threats rapidly arising. For example, the possibility of optimized quantum computers capable of solving complex problems frequently used by cryptographic algorithms would threaten the confidentiality of our communication channels. Simultaneously, the implementation of urban quantum communication systems might provide an infrastructure for the implementation of potentially encrypted messaging protocols to avoid this threat. Although the given descriptions are significant, quantum technologies have a much broader impact on computer security applications.

This Special Issue welcomes manuscripts on all aspects of the modeling, design, implementation, deployment, and management of security, forensics and privacy, protocols, and security breaches in quantum computing and ransomware-based software. It also emphasizes the role of digital forensics in academic and judicial matters as well as its significant role in information security and software cloning. It covers not only technologies and scientific proof, but also how professionals are trained for software forensics careers. We welcome both original research and review articles.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Digital forensics for IoT-based networks
• Digital forensics for code semantics
• Digital forensics for software privacy and security
• Digital forensics for artificial intelligence
• Big data and digital forensics
• Block-chain technology and digital forensics
• Theoretical foundations of digital forensics
• Cybersecurity and digital forensics
• Digital forensics of quantum computing
• Quantum hacking and digital forensics
• Digital forensics for quantum cryptanalysis
• Digital forensics for secure key distribution in quantum computing
• Digital forensics for ransomware-based software
• Digital forensics-based prevention algorithms for ransomware
• Digital forensics for malware analysis, including ransomware