I did read it. It did not say that the NSA had successfully achieved a remote install. It said they would pursue that possibility. And yes, some of those functions are achievable by today's apps. For example, you can remotely retrieve and deliver files to an iOS device using Dropbox and others, apps like Facetime and Skype can remotely capture audio and video, etc.
Yes. And that was 5 years ago. Do you think they just twiddled their thumbs in the mean time?
🙄 Explain to me how you can "covertly exfiltrate" data from the device using these apps without the knowledge of the user, which is obviously the point of these NSA implants.
Those NSA implants were never remotely installed on any iOS device without the permission or knowledge of the user. You can claim that the intent was there, but the fact is, no remote access of iPad webcams was ever achieved without the user's knowledge or permission. While nothing is impossible, as I already stated, nothing that has been posted in this thread proves that any iPad webcam has been or can currently be compromised without the owner's permission. As for what might be possible in the future, that's purely a matter of speculation. You haven't proven anything.
Your statement of "fact" is not borne out by the evidence of compromise presented by many above. The NSA has achieved 100% success at compromising iPhones at one time, we don't know the specific operational details of how that was accomplished or on what scale because their actions were covert. But to flat out deny that it never happened outside an NSA test lab, at this point, is laughable.
Is common knowledge to anyone with a modicum of technical understanding that any device can be compromised by a knowledgeable person if they gain physical access to it. That is not what is being discussed here. Absolutely zero evidence has been provided in this thread that any non-jailbroken iOS device has ever been remotely hacked without the user's knowledge or consent, or that any iOS camera has ever been remotely accessed without the user's permission, or that any unwanted software was ever installed remotely without the user's permission. Again I'll say that while nothing is impossible, there is zero evidence to indicate that these types of unwanted intrusions have ever actually been achieved in the real world. You can speculate and draw conclusions from any claim by anyone, but what you're left with is nothing but speculation and conjecture.
iOS data protection has no bearing on compromising a running phone. As soon as the user has entered the passcode once after turning on the device, the memory is open to any software running on the device. This is why it does not prevent jailbreaking.