I was at a talk at a Math Conference where the speaker wasn't allowed to give the talk due to it being Classified. This speaker was able to register at the Math Conference with the talk and canceled it at the last minute during the presentation. I don't believe that that person had any issues after the talk and was not fired from their position as a researcher.
From what I can read about this the case is similar but in both actions it was a miscommunication. The speakers should have been informed that it was unacceptable. They should have been talked to about their instability to give the talk and the talk should have been cancelled. I would like to hear the other side of the story from Salesforce to give a full judgement but, I would expect a reprimand at best and not a firing.
1. The researcher you are talking about should have known the content was classified well before he did the talk. Whether it was classified or not was not based off the decision of a executive.
2. The punishment for revealing classified data to an audience is clearance loss & likely prison. It is not comparable to revealing proprietary company data that is not classified or not even covered under ITAR.
But it was not classified and they had done the talk at a different conference. According to the article they got a message an hour earlier about not open sourcing it, which they did not do it looks like.
From what I can read about this the case is similar but in both actions it was a miscommunication. The speakers should have been informed that it was unacceptable. They should have been talked to about their instability to give the talk and the talk should have been cancelled. I would like to hear the other side of the story from Salesforce to give a full judgement but, I would expect a reprimand at best and not a firing.