NATO on Thursday condemned a cyberattack on Albania that Tirana and Washington blamed on Iran, and pledged to bolster the alliance member’s defenses against hackers.

"We stand in solidarity with Albania following the recent cyber attack on its national information infrastructure," NATO allies said. 

"We strongly condemn such malicious cyber activities designed to destabilise and harm the security of an Ally, and disrupt the daily lives of citizens." 

The alliance pledged to "support Albania in strengthening its cyber defence capabilities to withstand and repel such malicious cyber activities in the future."

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Wednesday accused Iran of directing a cyberattack against Albanian institutions on July 15 in a bid to "paralyze public services and hack data and electronic communications from the government systems."

Albania, which joined NATO in 2009, broke diplomatic relations with Tehran in retaliation.

The two countries have been bitter foes for years, since the Balkan state began hosting members of the opposition People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, or Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), on its soil.

The US warned of "further action" against Iran as it condemned what it called the "unprecedented" cyberattack against ally Albania. 

Iran rejected the accusation it was behind the cyberattack as "baseless" and called Albania’s decision to sever diplomatic ties "an ill-considered and short-sighted action".