TAKEFUJI CORPORATION   15-1 Nishi-Shinjuku 8-chome,Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163-8654 Japan November 29, 2004 For release    Immediately Representative Megumu Motohisa, President Contact Investor Relations Tel: 81-3-3365-8011 Fax: 81-3-3365-8070 Stock Code No. 8564 TYOSE Takefuji Introduces VeriSign PKI Solutions in Action against Phishing - Preventing Spoofing by Attaching Electronic Signatures to E-mails Sent Outside the Company - Takefuji Corporation VeriSign Japan, K.K.  Takefuji Corporation (Head Office: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Representative and President: Megumu Motohisa, "the Company") is pleased to announce that it will introduce a service for deploying and managing electronic certificates. The service is called the VeriSign Managed PKI Service, and is provided by VeriSign Japan, K.K. (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, President and CEO: Akihiko Kawashima), and it being introduced as part of Takefuji's response to the rapidly growing instances of the fraudulent behavior known as phishing. By the end of this year, the Company plans to incorporate a system by which electronic signatures are attached to all e-mails sent from its employees.  Damage attributable to "phishing" is rapidly mounting. Senders who pretend to be banks or credit card companies send e-mails, and advise recipients to send back their personal financial information such as credit card numbers and bank personal identification numbers with the intention to unlawfully withdraw money from their accounts. According to a report issued by U.S. company Gartner Inc. in May, 1.8 million people had reported losses from phishing in the United States annually, with the total damages of 1.2 billion dollars. There is concern that losses from phishing will also rise rapidly in Japan in the future. Takefuji has considered its social responsibility for e-mails that are sent as documents from financial institutions, and believes that they will become increasingly important as a means of communication with customers and people outside the Company.  As part of measures to strengthen its IT security, Takefuji is introducing a service to deploy and manage electronic certificates. The service is called the VeriSign Managed PKI Service, and is provided by VeriSign Japan, K.K. It incorporates a system to issue electronic certificates to all employees and staff members who have e-mail accounts. These electronic signatures are attached to all e-mails sent to customers and people outside the Company by Takefuji employees, using electronic certificates issued through this authentication system. Customers who receive e-mails can confirm that the senders are real Takefuji employees by verifying the electronic signatures through mail software that supports the S/MIME, and at the same time making sure that the content sent has not been falsified while being transmitted.  As electronic signatures are attached to all e-mails sent to customers, if an e-mail without the electronic signature is sent, it will be easy to determine that it is a spoof e-mail in which the sender is masquerading as a Takefuji employee. As a result, this will make it possible to reduce the damages caused by phishing by a third party.  Takefuji and VeriSign Japan will work together to take action, including the introduction of e-mails with electric signatures, against phishing and other threats, which will undoubtedly become more cunning in the future. The both companies will thereby be seeking to protect important information such as private customer information and so on.  <Profile of Takefuji Corporation>  Takefuji Corporation is the Japanese largest consumer finance company with a loan balance of 1,578.7 billion yen (as of the end of March 2004), and ranks 25th in corporate earnings declared in fiscal 2003. Takefuji is listed on the First Section of Tokyo Stock Exchange as well as on the London Stock Exchange. The Company has 1,892 branch offices nationwide, including unmanned offices for automatic contracts where unmanned contract machines and ATMs are installed, and the Internet office. The number of CDs and ATMs is 35,540 units including tie-up units, and more than 2.6 million customers use its services (as of the end of March 2004.) <Profile of VeriSign Japan, K.K.>  VeriSign Japan, K.K. was established as the first overseas affiliate of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) in 1996 (Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Security Code: 3722). The Company provides websites, corporate networks and solutions to establish reliability on the Internet for individual users. The company also offers a server certificate issuance service to verify the existence of websites, an outsourcing service for deploying electronic certificates, domain name registration services and so on. VeriSign Japan's services are provided through websites, the Sales Department, and VeriSign Japan distribution partners. <Features of the VeriSign Managed PKI Service>  The VeriSign Managed PKI Service is an outsourcing service for deploying and managing electronic certificates for intranets, extranets, and Web applications. Because VeriSign deploys and manages certificates in place of client companies and organizations, companies and other organizations are able to introduce the PKI without having to worry about design, deployment and operation. The service incorporates a number of functions, such as authentication, data encryption, electronic signatures, and prevention of a denial. Copyright © 2004 VeriSign Japan K.K. All rights reserved. * "VeriSign" is the registered trademark of VeriSign, Inc. in the U.S. and outside the U.S. * Other trademarks mentioned in this release are the trademarks of respective companies. For further details, please contact : Public Relations Department, Takefuji Corporation 15-1 Nishi-shinjuku 8-chome, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163-8654 Tel : 03-3365-8030  e-mail : info@takefuji.co.jp Marketing Communications, VeriSign Japan, K.K. 8-1 Yaesu 2-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0028 Tel : 03-3271-7014  e-mail : pr@verisign.co.jp Back by Takefuji co.