title: How to choose the name for an X.509 company certificate?
body: <p>I'd like to create a certificate to sign our company's software. The tool that I'm using for this (<a href="http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/tools/windows/keytool.html" rel="nofollow">keytool</a> from the Java SDK) expects the distinguished name in the following format:</p>
  
  <pre><code>CN=commonName, OU=organizationalUnit, O=organizationName, L=city, S=state, C=countryCode
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If I just want a certificate for my company (not for any particular person therein), should I use</p>
  
  <pre><code>CN=MyCompany, C=AT
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>or</p>
  
  <pre><code>O=MyCompany, C=AT
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>as the distinguished name? The latter would make more sense (since MyCompany is the name of the organization), but I don't know if it's "correct" to leave the commonName empty.</p>