[naviga:h3]Crayola’s new blue crayon has a name[/naviga:h3]

EASTON — Hello, Bluetiful.

Crayola announced the name of its new blue crayon Thursday. Bluetiful was the top pick of fans during two months of online voting, beating out Dreams Come Blue, Blue Moon Bliss, Reach for the Stars and Star Spangled Blue.

The Easton, Pennsylvania-based crayon maker received nearly 90,000 name submissions before narrowing it down to five.

Bluetiful will make its debut later this year. It’s replacing the recently retired dandelion.

Scientists at Oregon State University accidentally discovered the brilliant blue hue while experimenting with materials for use in electronics.

[naviga:h3]Equifax theft traced to software flaw[/naviga:h3]

NEW YORK — Credit agency Equifax traced the theft of sensitive information about 143 million Americans to a software flaw that could have been fixed well before the burglary occurred, further undermining its credibility as the guardian of personal data that can easily be used for identity theft.

Equifax identified a weakness in an open-source software package called Apache Struts as the technological crack that allowed hackers to heist Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses and full legal names from a massive database maintained primarily for lenders.

The disclosure, made late Wednesday, cast the company’s damaging security lapse in an even harsher light. The software problem was detected in March and a recommended software patch was released shortly afterward. Equifax said the database intrusion began in May and continued until July.

[naviga:h3]Chinese exchanges told to shut down[/naviga:h3]

BEIJING — Regulators have ordered Chinese bitcoin exchanges to close, two business newspapers reported Thursday, after uncertainty about the digital currency’s future in China caused its price to plunge.

Regulators in Shanghai, the country’s financial center, gave verbal instructions to exchange operators to shut down, China Business News and 21st Century Economic Report said on their websites. They gave no other details.

Bitcoin’s value tumbled 15 percent Thursday to about $3,300. The famously volatile currency has shed about a third of its value since Sept. 1 but is up from about $600 a year ago. China’s central bank has yet to respond to questions about bitcoin’s future in the country but earlier warned it was traded without regulatory oversight and might be linked to fraud. The bank banned initial offerings of new digital currencies last week.