Briefs for Saturday
BOISE – The number of Idaho residents applying for unemployment increased 12 percent last week after three weeks of declines, the Idaho Department of Labor said Thursday.
The agency said it received 3,644 new claims as the state’s recovery during the coronavirus pandemic remains fitful.
Craig Shaul, a research analyst for the state, said it wasn’t clear what caused last week’s bump in new claims, although he suggested it could be a seasonal shift of some kind.
The agency said the overall number of people collecting unemployment dropped 7% to 18,772.
MulitCare suffers data breach
Tacoma-based MultiCare Health System reported Friday it was among thousands of nonprofits affected by the Blackbaud data breach.
In an email, MultiCare said it was notified in July of a ransomware attack against Blackbaud, a fundraising technology provider used by the MultiCare Foundation and more than 25,000 nonprofits worldwide.
MultiCare reported that credit card, bank account and social security numbers of patients and donors were not compromised.
The impacted data did contain limited demographic information about some of MultiCare’s patients, former patients and donors as well as some health care information, according to the email.
US may allow WeChat use
The Trump administration is signaling that U.S. companies can continue to use the WeChat messaging app in China, according to several people familiar with the matter, two weeks after President Donald Trump ordered a U.S. ban on the Chinese-owned service.
The administration is still working through the technical implications of how to enforce such a partial ban on the app, which is owned by Tencent Holdings Ltd., one of China’s biggest companies. A key question is whether the White House would allow Apple and Google to carry the app in its global app stores outside of the U.S., according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
From wire reportsThe intention is to prohibit any downloads or updates of the WeChat app in U.S. app stores, two of the people said. U.S. companies with China operations such as Starbucks Corp. could still advertise and process transactions with Chinese consumers via the app, they said.