Microsoft has allegedly fired two of its employees after they helped leaked one or more builds of Windows 8. User Canouna, who has a great reputation relating to new Microsoft software releases and information, first posted about the incident on the My Digital Life forums.

The fired leakers are supposedly from different parts of the world: one was part of the Redmond campus and the other was located in Russia. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft is not commenting on this rumor.

Windows 8 build 7850, the first leaked Windows 8 build, hit the Internet last month. It was quickly followed by Windows 8 Build 7955 a few weeks later. Windows Server 8 build 7959 then leaked earlier this month.

The builds started leaking after Microsoft partners were given access to Windows 8 builds on Microsoft Connect. We thus speculated that this was the reason for the increase in leaks, and while that still may be the case, this rumor implies that Microsoft employees also helped the enthusiast community as well.

While these builds were never the latest and greatest at the time they were leaked, and certainly did not show what Windows 8 would be like, users still uncovered many features uncovered that Microsoft wanted to keep quiet. It's possible the two Microsoft employees pushed them in the right direction.

Although a rumor suggests that Windows 8 will arrive on January 7, 2013, we expect that the operating system will ship in time for the 2012 holiday season. Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 8 will support Intel, AMD, and ARM architectures.