[hint]How do you usually convert symbols then think why they are repeating.[/hint]
Spoiler
Symbols usually convert to numbers, &=7, ^=6… then gives a decimal to Ascii sequence but in this case the symbols are repeating between 1 to 3 times. Your keyboard has 3 rows right ?
So &&& is the 7th character of the 3rd row which is m. Keep converting the rest of the string to get
&&&.^^^.&.%.^^.%.@.%.^^.#.*.@@.*.&&&.&
m n u t h tw t h e i s i m u
We now have the prefix and suffix
mnuthtw theisimu
or
mnu32 386mu
The ciphers used symbols which is a valid keyword.
