However well they meant, they have to be punished.
The temptation to use the info for national security may have been great, but they may well have rendered more significant plans useless with their actions.
Imagine if in WW2, a British soldier became aware that the Brits were aware of German plans and were not forewarning their troops in danger? It would be natural fo him to warn them, but it would have let the Germans know that Enigma was cracked and thus cost many lives indirectly.
The government may well be ‘sitting’ on this information for good reasons.
There are proper channels and methods for reclassifying and declassifying information. All of these guys know that. And they chose to break the law instead.