Rate Limiting as Security Policy: Define Your Protection Strategy Before Choosing a Library

Rate limiting is often implemented as a convenience dependency without a clear security policy, resulting in surface-level protection. This article argues that the real value lies in first defining what to protect—based on OWASP recommendations around authentication, password recovery, and sensitive endpoints—rather than installing a library and applying arbitrary thresholds. The implementation technology (middleware, edge computing) matters less than the deliberate policy that precedes it.