Could you please explain the significance of the date?
Certainly. The paper was written about a technology SEVEN years old. It was released for general distribution for eyes to see in the agency only a few months after Apple opened the App Store. . . meaning that the iPhone was capable of accepting APPS at all. This was what Eric Snowden knew about iPhones. He released this in 2013 when he first stated that iPhones could be compromised and this was his evidence. . . at that time a FIVE year old document about a phone that was obsolete. The technology used in modern iPhones is completely different today. The original iPhone did not encrypt anything. We are currently FIVE generations removed from when this paper that Snowden based his 2013 claim on. He has not been back into the NSA since then to update anything about his knowledge. Modern iPhones do encrypt data to 256 bit AES standards. Snowden has released nothing more on this subject. . . except this third hand hearsay.
This document claims that even then it required physical access to the iPhone to compromise it. It was that document's release in 2013 that caused all the upset that resulted in the German government banning the use of iOS devices, despite it being so outdated. . . and NOTHING being found on Angela Merket's iPhone. Mere suspicion was sufficient all based on a five year old document and despite the fact her iPhone was less than a year old. Forensic specialists went over it and found nothing in it. . . but the mere possibility that it had been intercepted before she had received it was enough to stop using it.