A system and method for facilitating password control and maintenance is provided. A system 10 is provided where a plurality of categories are set so that a single piece or multiple pieces of information that are familiar to the user can be set as a password element(s) for each category. Each sampled password element that is grouped according to each category that is randomly sampled from said categories is displayed, in random order, together with a plurality of scramble elements, on a display device 17. Of those displayed, the user chooses selected password elements that are familiar to him. If all of the selected password elements match the preset sampled password elements, authentication is issued to the user.