Very weird. Seems possible that some clueless higher-up found out about it at the last minute and said "don't you dare let this happen," some middle manager tried to stop it, failed, panicked, and threw Schwartz and Cramb under the bus to evade blame. Could also be office politics bullshit; a high-up was gunning for them with no real justification and ginned up a smokescreen to fire them.
Either way, "director of offensive security" is a pretty hefty-sounding title to fire off-the-cuff like an incompetent intern.
"Could also be office politics bullshit; a high-up was gunning for them with no real justification and ginned up a smokescreen to fire them."
Ding, ding, ding! We may have a winner.
Here's my guess - the guys that got fired were more than technically competent (basically experts going off what I've read), but probably were pushing the envelope in terms of what Salesforce, or more specifically Salesforce's large enterprise customers, felt comfortable having discussed out in the open.
Either way, "director of offensive security" is a pretty hefty-sounding title to fire off-the-cuff like an incompetent intern.