Technological developments affect every aspect of human life, warfare included, suffices to recall the emergence of the so-called cyber-attacks, unmanned robots, autonomous weapon systems. Consequently, new technologies affect international humanitarian law (IHL) as well. Among the various legal questions arisen by the introduction of new technologies in warfare, their impact on the criterion of intensity required for the classification of a situation as a non-international armed conflict (NIAC) is here assessed. How is the reaching of such a threshold measured, when new weapons are more and more precise? How should this criterion be evaluated, in cases in which there are not casualties – both military and civilians – at all, a situation that may happen in case of cyber-attacks? This problem is conceptually and practically relevant, as a NIAC exists only when the criterion of intensity – together with the criterion of organization – is reached, thus allowing the application of IHL. The development of the criterion of intensity is first assessed, resorting to conventional rules interpreted under the rules of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and international case law, of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in particular. After this initial assessment, the work of reconceptualization of the criterion of intensity is conducted, submitting an approach based on the protection of human rights. This approach would allow a reconceptualization of the criterion of intensity, in view of the new technological weapons, which complies with the scope of the rules of IHL and is consistent with the development of international law on a more general level.