  User authentication is one of the most important part of information
security. Computer security most commonly depends on passwords to authenticate
human users. Password authentication systems will be either been usable but not
secure, or secure but not usable. While there are different types of
authentication systems available alphanumeric password is the most commonly
used authentication mechanism. But this method has significant drawbacks. An
alternative solution to the text based authentication is Graphical User
Authentication based on the fact that humans tends to remember images better
than text. Graphical password authentication systems provide passwords which
are easy to be created and remembered by the user. However, the main issues of
simple graphical password techniques are shoulder surfing attack and image
gallery attack. Studies reveals that most of the graphical passwords are either
secure but not usable or usable but not secure. In this paper, a new technique
that uses cued click point graphical password method along with the one-time
session key is proposed. The goal is to propose a new authentication mechanism
using graphical password to achieve higher security and better usability
levels. The result of the system testing is evaluated and it reveals that the
proposed system ensures security and usability to a great extent.
