"I can dial into an elevator phone, listen in on private conversations, reprogram the phone so that if someone hits it in an emergency it calls a number of my choosing," Caruana told me in our first conversation. [...]
Call up most elevator phones and press 2, and you'll be asked to enter a password to reprogram them. In far too many cases, Caruana says, phone installers and building managers don't change those passwords from easily guessable default codes, allowing anyone to tamper with their settings.
Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.
I was riding the 'elevator at work a few years ago, and it started ringing. Then a voice started coming out of the elevator. It was a bill collector. They asked for someone by name, I told them that this was not their number, this was an elevator. They offered to call back later when I wasn't in the elevator. I then tried to get them to understand that the problem wasn't that I was in the elevator, but that they were CALLING the elevator. I eventually just walked away.
Friends of mine got into lift surfing a few years ago, as one does, and one got hold of an elevator service tool which is a handheld computer that attaches to a serial port on the roof of the car. Let's just say that among the capabilities was removing the building-specific speed limits...