Did you miss this bit from the article:
> The email was read by someone, I assume the CEO, and less than an hour after it was sent, I could not connect to the exposed server anymore.
This was after the author’s first email, and before the CEOs reply.
What tptacek was getting at is that the article is a bit unclear on when the review of DB contents occurred, since the author no longer had access. (But I think it’s just because the author reviewed the contents already before they reported the issue.)