(An archived version of the article is here.)

Krebs mentioned the takedown at the very end of a story he wrote about the arrest of a Vietnamese American who pleaded guilty on Friday to taking masses of NSA material home.

Comments were not allowed on this article, presumably to avoid criticism of his earlier claim.

Krebs did not offer any reason why he had taken down his article but it appears that he had allowed himself to be a willing vehicle for claims by a Washington DC-based security firm, InGuardians, about a man of Russian origin being behind the leak of exploits to the Shadow Brokers. In that article, he avoided citing his source for the claims until the 30th paragraph.

iTWire was one of two publications that questioned Krebs' claims and pointed out mistakes in the article; well-known blogger Marcy Wheeler was the first to do so in a post on her blog.

In reporting the arrest of the Vietnamese American, iTWire had noted the following: "(Vietnamese American Nghia Hoang) Pho's plea also puts paid to theories being floated that the person who leaked NSA files to the Shadow Brokers was a man of Russian origin. As... pointed out, this theory was floated by former Washington Post employee Brian Krebs."

Krebs is yet to remove a tweet pointing to the story on his Russian claims, though that may disappear soon.

Who Was the NSA contractor arrested for leaking The Shadow Brokers hacking tools? Today's post examines clues in the metadata from the now-public tools for some possible answers: https://t.co/Oi47N3Eapt

— briankrebs (@briankrebs) November 27, 2017

Update: Krebs has been contacted for comment.