Do I need malware or virus protection?

No need to be worried, iPads cannot catch viruses and you do not need any app for virus protection. Safari or other browsers can get phishing pop ups but they are easy to clear with a Safari reset. My wife and I have had iOS devices for years, never a virus problem.

There's a big difference between virus and malware.

You do not need any virus protection, as there are none on iOS. For malware protection you just need common sense.

Thus link should provide sufficient guidance:

http://www.thesafemac.com/mmg-defense/

I feel compelled to chime in after reading these comments!

Your paranoia serves you well. In fact something like what you describe happened in 2015 when developers used compromised tools (without knowledge that they were bad) to build their apps and published them to App Store.

More about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XcodeGhost

If you have issues at any point with pop-ups in Safari coming up, all you have to do is Delete all Website Data under Settings>Safari. Beyond that, using common sense when surfing the web and clicking on links on websites, messages, or emails will protect you.

As long as you have not jailbroken your device, you won't get viruses, and any adware issues you might encounter are resolved by clearing the website data from Safari (after closing the app).

Best of luck,

GB