Article was not clear "why?" but those three hacking groups have had members arrested and convicted since many of their members appear to be in reach of US Law Enforcement.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/scattered-spi...

My guess is these two employees were heavily involved in their arrests and/or convictions.

What an extraordinary compliment. I’d be chuffed to bits if I were one of these two employees.