[dredmorbius]

Externality != "hard to model". Rather, it means difficult to internalise.

Garrett Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons" gives a quite simple model of what an externality can be (overgrazing). The problem isn't in the modelling, but rather in the mutual enforcement of a collectively beneficial behavior.

That isn't to say that there aren't costs which are hard to model, but that's an orthogonal issue, and can apply just as well to internalised effects (e.g., the goodwill loss of a massive security breach) as to externalities.

Goodwill loss is not an externality.

I agree, adamantly, with your comment that businesses are frequently not enlightened or intelligent enough to model full costs. I'm seeing the issue of the long-term development of both cost and benefit awareness as a pressing issue, general to economics. It undermines many of the assertions of market efficiency.