It's probably a lot more lucrative to work on such projects than may be working for the NSA while doing the exactly same things but aren't there laws that prevent ex-spies and hackers to work for foreign governments ?
You could say that they should have seen that coming.
They are well aware that they now can't return to previous employers. They have little chance of getting their security clearances restored.
I remember when the French government learnt that all the top officials of the country where tapped by the NSA, including the President (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionnage_de_l%27%C3%89lys%C3...).
France did absolutely nothing.
[0] - https://www.businessinsider.com/france-building-encrypted-me...
...that we know about.